Atiku calls proposed $500m World Bank loan a debt trap and urges the bank not to approve it

Former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar, the presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress, has criticised the Tinubu administration's pursuit of a proposed $500 million World Bank loan and called on the bank not to approve it.

In a statement issued by Phrank Shaibu, Director of Strategic Communication of the ADC Presidential Campaign Council, Atiku said President Bola Tinubu cannot borrow in the final days of his tenure and leave the next administration and Nigerians to repay it. "No outgoing president has the right to burden his successor with fresh debt days before handing over power," he said, according to Daily Trust.

He said the facility is scheduled for consideration on May 25, 2027, four days before the next presidential inauguration. He also said Nigerians will vote on January 16 for "a new direction" and asked the World Bank not to approve the loan on the timetable now being contemplated.

Atiku used a Swahili proverb to make his case: "If you borrow a man's legs, you will go where he directs." He argued that a leader who borrows on the way out leaves a successor constrained by obligations the people did not choose.

The $500 million facility is part of a proposed $3.85 billion infrastructure financing platform known as INFRAGROW, which is meant to attract private investment, according to a World Bank project document reported by Tribune. The report says the Federal Ministry of Finance would be the borrower and the Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority would implement the project.