Why Unchecked Borrowing and Rubber-Stamp Laws Should Alarm Everyone

A recent media report indicated that the President Bola Tinubu administration borrowed N2.17 trillion to fund supplemental capital projects in 2023, but only 70 percent was met. It borrowed $21.5 billion, €2.2 billion and ¥15 billion to fund 2024 capital projects, yet only 30% was met.

Reports also have it that it borrowed $2.347 billion, $347million, €4 billion, and N1.15 trillion, as well as a $500 million sukuk bond, to fund capital projects in 2025, yet 0% was achieved as of today, December 11, 2025. Latest development showed that the President is now pressing for another 17.89 trillion loan to fund the 2026 budget, which has yet and likely not to be presented to the National Assembly.

Unfortunately, the legislative arm will approve this loan request without scrutinizing how the loans allowed for FG since mid-2023 have been used in terms of budget performance and implementations. With the pace this regime is going, by the time they’re done, Nigeria would be left in a carcass.

In my earlier opinion, I focused on weak capital budget execution, rising borrowing without commensurate delivery, legislative failure to enforce accountability, the danger of debt-funded consumption masquerading as development.

The recent The Punch’s front-page figures do not contradict that analysis—they validate and worsen it. What has changed is not the diagnosis, but the scale and severity of the problem. Then (Analytical Concern). Capital budgets underperformed.

Borrowing was outpacing execution; oversight was weak, mow (empirical evidence) borrowing has accelerated sharply while capital execution has collapsed. Oversight has become ritualistic, not functional. The data provides numerical proof of what was previously an analytical warning.

Scrutiny of the borrowing–execution gap – 2023: ₦2.17 trillion supplemental borrowing → 70 per cent execution. This is still problematic, but at least partial delivery. Weakness was already evident, but not catastrophic 2024: Massive multi-currency borrowing → 30 per cent execution- Clear deterioration. Borrowing has expanded faster than absorptive capacity while signals of systemic failure are ignored 2025: Multiple loans + Sukuk → 0% capital execution (as of Dec 11).

This is the critical red flag. At this point, borrowing is completely decoupled from delivery. Debt is being accumulated without productive assets. The fiscal system is functioning on paper approvals, not outcomes This pattern is dangerous for Nigerians because debt without assets is economic sabotage.

The fact is that borrowing is not inherently bad, but borrowing without creating productive assets is. Nigeria is. Accumulating hard currency liabilities without roads, power, irrigation, hospitals, or factories to repay them, leaving future governments with debt but no infrastructure.

This is how nations slide into structural debt traps, even without corruption scandals. Debt service will strangle social spending as borrowing rises: Debt servicing already consumes over ₦15 trillion annually, hence education, health, and social protection are crowded out.

Citizens pay through higher taxes, inflation, and reduced public services. This is silent taxation of the poor. Capital budget failure undermines reform legitimacy The administration argues that “pain today for gain tomorrow” But when borrowing rises, pain rises, delivery is absent.

The moral contract collapses – citizens lose trust not because reforms exist, but because results do not. Legislative rubber-stamping: Why it is a dereliction of duty Constitutional Reality. The National Assembly is not a ceremonial body.

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