Atiku demands answers as Nigeria’s debt hits N166.79tn
Atiku demands answers as Nigeria’s debt hits N166.79tn
Former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar has demanded a full reconciliation of Nigeria’s public debt, including new borrowings, Treasury Bills and controversial charges contained in the latest external debt-service records, as the country’s debt stock climbed to N166.79tn.
Atiku also demanded an apology from the President Bola Tinubu administration over the hardship Nigerians have experienced since the removal of the petrol subsidy and other economic reforms introduced in 2023.
The demands were contained in a statement on Saturday by Phrank Shaibu, Director of Strategic Communications of the African Democratic Congress Presidential Campaign Council.
The intervention followed the latest data from the Debt Management Office, which put Nigeria’s total public debt at N166.79tn as of June 30, 2026. The DMO published the latest debt figures on September 25.
The figure comprises N91.59tn in domestic debt and N75.20tn in external debt, with the latter converted at an official exchange rate of N1,379.18 to the dollar.
Atiku contrasted the latest figure with the N49.85tn public debt recorded in March 2023, before the Tinubu administration assumed office.
He, however, called for a breakdown showing how much of the current debt represented inherited obligations, the naira impact of exchange-rate movements on foreign debt and genuinely new borrowing since May 2023.
