Is President Bola Ahmed Tinubu borrowing Nigerian future away?
By Faduri Joseph, founder of Rescue Movement, The F-Planet, and former Labour Party presidential aspirant
Nigeria is bleeding in broad daylight, and the people holding the knife are the very ones who swore to lead us.
The Tinubu government? A national embarrassment. How do you pay off one loan only to go cap-in-hand begging for another the next week? Who exactly are we trying to fool—ourselves or the lenders? This isn’t economic strategy. It’s financial self-sabotage.
Some Nigerians clapped when the government announced it had settled a loan. But as I, Faduri Joseph, said then: paying back debt is not development. You can repay a trillion and still have a nation where people can’t afford food, can’t find jobs, and can’t walk the streets without fear. What exactly are we celebrating?
They scrapped fuel subsidies and promised relief. “We’ll save billions,” they said. But here we are—still borrowing like a junkie in need of another fix. What kind of leadership operates this way? This isn’t governance; it’s organized recklessness wearing agbada and designer caps.
And the National Assembly? Missing in action. A group of well-paid spectators, nodding through budgets and loan requests like it’s a formality. They ask no questions, demand no answers. Just rubber-stamping their way through history while the nation burns.
Let’s talk hard facts: Tinubu’s administration has borrowed over ₦63 trillion in less than three years. ₦63 trillion—and yet there is no visible improvement in the lives of ordinary Nigerians. Recovered funds are being “re-looted.” Nobody is prosecuted. Nobody is ashamed. It’s business as usual.
Meanwhile, millions of Nigerians are trapped in survival mode. The roads are nightmares. Inflation is in overdrive. People can’t feed their families. And insecurity has taken a firm grip on every region. Yet the borrowing continues—without direction, without vision, without accountability.
It is shameful. A country with our resources and potential shouldn’t be living like this. Nigeria once gave aid to other nations. Today, we borrow ourselves into deeper holes. The tragedy isn’t just that we borrow—it’s that we have nothing to show for it.
I have said it before, and I will say it again: we do not lack resources; we lack leadership. We do not lack potential; we lack accountability. Until we make space for a new generation of leaders—men and women of integrity, competence, and empathy—this cycle will never end.
As Faduri Joseph, the founder of Rescue Movement and The F-Planet, I believe in a new Nigeria that is possible—but not with these same recycled figures draining our future. Real change starts when the people stop waiting for miracles and start demanding responsibility.
Nigeria must rise—not with hashtags, not with slogans—but with action. We must ask the hard questions. We must hold our so-called representatives accountable. Because until we decide to save ourselves, these leaders will continue to mortgage our tomorrow for their today.
Let it be known: the power to rescue Nigeria lies not in Aso Rock, but in the hands of its people.
Faduri Oluwadare Joseph
Founder, Rescue Movement & The F-Planet
Former Labour Party Presidential Aspirant
