News
Obi to Tinubu: Where is your conscience, why are you doing this to Nigeria?
For the umpteenth time, Peter Obi, presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), in the 2023 election, has assailed President Bola Tinubu and his All Progressives Congress (APC), over the reckless manner of borrowing and piling up of debts without consideration of how generations of Nigerians would pay.
Using his X handle, Obi, who took umbrage on the heels of a fresh wave of borrowings approved by the Senate recently, warned that the country’s fiscal trajectory could compromise future generations and worsen living conditions for millions of citizens.
Railing against the latest approvals, which included $21 billion, €2.2 billion, and ¥15 billion in new external loans for the 2025-2026 fiscal cycle, in addition to a N750.98 billion domestic bond issuance and a €65 million grant, Obi lamented that this had brought the nation’s total public debt to approximately N187 trillion, with projections suggesting it could exceed N200 trillion by year-end.
Hear him: “With an already existing public debt of about N149.39 trillion as at the first quarter of 2025, adding the approved loans of about N37.2 trillion brings our current total debt to about N187 trillion, with concerns that our debt might likely be over N200 trillion by the end of 2025.
“We are accumulating exponential levels of unsustainable debt with little or nothing to show for it in critical areas such as education, healthcare, electricity generation, and security. Nigeria’s pre-rebased GDP stood at N269.2 trillion (around $180 billion), meaning total borrowing now represents nearly 70% of the previous GDP.
“Even after the recent GDP rebasing, which revised the figure upward to N372.8 trillion (approximately $243.7 billion), Nigeria’s debt-to-GDP ratio now hovers at 50.16%—the highest in its history. Nigeria reported a year-on-year debt increase of N27.72 trillion and a quarter-on-quarter rise of N4.72 trillion, key development metrics remain stagnant or deteriorating.”
While bemoaning the situation where insecurity remained rampant, with over 10,217 deaths and 672 villages sacked within a two-year span, despite a government that has increased annual security spending from N2.98 trillion in 2023 to N4.91 trillion in 2025, Obi also lamented how basic infrastructure also continued to lag, with roughly 135,000 kilometres of Nigeria’s 195,000 km road network remaining unpaved, while electricity supply has stagnated below 5,000 megawatts for a population of over 200 million.
Citing the alarming statistics on poverty and malnutrition, with 133 million Nigerians – around 63 per cent of the population now classified as multi-dimensionally poor, the former Governor of Anambra State, called attention to a report from Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) that disclosed the deaths of 652 children in Northern Nigeria due to malnutrition, singling out Katsina State as one of the most affected.
His words: “This is a country blessed with enormous resources, yet nobody should go to bed hungry. A persistent deficiency in leadership has thrown the majority of our citizens into increasing poverty. Borrowing is not inherently detrimental if targeted at productive, high-impact investments with transparent and measurable outcomes. “This pattern of borrowing without accountability and transformational impact is simply mortgaging the future of our children. The government should show minimum consideration for the future of young and unborn Nigerians. It is time to stop this fiscal indiscipline. We must build a New Nigeria, where leadership is responsible, development is people-centred, and every kobo borrowed or spent delivers measurable impact.”
Seyi Makinde of Oyo State, Governor of Oyo State, on Thursday, finally threw his hats into the ring by declaring his intention to run for president in 2027, with a message – history beckons.
The governor, whose ambition has been a matter of speculations for months now and who had teamed up with forces angling to force President Bola Tinubu, out of power, told a teeming crowd in Ibadan on Thursday that time had come to reset Nigeria.
At a mega-rally to announce the alliance between the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), and the Allied Peoples’ Movement, (APM), Makinde, expressed worry over the dwindling fortunes of Nigerians, vowing to engage Nigerians to end the drift.
Hear him: “Without a multi-party system, there is no democracy. Where is our multi-party? Where do we go from here? We have been pushed to the wall.
“They calculated and self-opposition cannot unite but I am here to say that the opposition is the everyday Nigerian. This is the time for all us to ensure Nigeria works for us. This is the time to confront it fears. It is time to engage as citizens and not spectators.
“For the opposition political parties, this is the time to unite and work in unity and give our nation the much reset it needs. The time to reset Nigeria is now. Ibadan is the city of warriors. The first grand alliance is formed. The PDP and APM is formed. This handshake will allow us to field candidates from presidency to state Assembly. And so, I declare my candidacy for office of the president of Nigeria.”
Eyo Ekpe, a professor of cardiothoracic surgery at the University of Uyo Teaching Hospital (UUTH), on Wednesday, gave a detailed account on how operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) manhandled him on Monday.
He told reporters that he was at sea on why he should fall victim to the assault against his person and eventually arrested given that was not right person directly involved in the information the agency sought.
Some operatives of the EFCC who invaded the hospital, had whisked Ekpe away after firing teargas to scare away the workers, patients and visitors to the hospital, following what appeared like a fracas the ensued over what it claimed was a routine duty in the facility.
Ekpe, Deputy Chairman of the hospital’s Medical Advisory Committee (MAC), described how an operative had first entered his office to make inquiries on why the hospital was yet to give a response to an EFCC inquiry over a medical report linked to a suspect facing trial.
He detailed how he briefed the operative that the said response was being prepared and even went ahead to show him the draft of a letter in that regard, which needed to go through the gamut of official endorsement before being released.
Hear him: “The head of that internal medicine department looked at the report and also discovered that the name of the doctor that signed the report is not a member of staff of that department.
“I had prepared prepared a response to the EFCC on Monday, May 11, 2026, based on the findings. When the EFCC operative visited my office the next morning to collect the document, I told him that the response was ready in draft. I even showed him the draft, but told him that the document still needed approval from the Chief Medical Director (CMD) of the hospital before it could be officially signed and released.
“He pretended to have accepted that. He left, but later later returned with another armed operative and informed me that I was under arrest. I asked him why. I was not the one that issued the medical report. My name is not on the medical report. The report was not issued from my unit.
“But he said I would get the answer when I get to their office. I then asked him to at least wait for my staff member who I sent on an errand before joining them. But they refused.
“They started pushing me. They dragged me out of the office. Then I began to cry while they were dragging me. They had warned me not to speak. They had taken my phone. My cry as they were dragging me, attracted the workers to the scene, who enquired what was going on, but because they ordered me not to speak, I couldn’t say anything. They had their guns.
The members of staff of the hospital initially blocked them from taking me away. They then made a call. After that I saw many masked and armed men came violently, broke the protector, threatening the people that were around and people ran away.
“They picked some staff that were still by me. they dragged me and other staff, five of us into their van downstairs. By that time they discovered that the gate of the hospital were locked. So, they drove towards the gate and packed and the commotion continued. We were inside the van.
“I was so emotionally and psychologically traumatised that I couldn’t even look out of the vehicle to see what was happening outside. But I know that teargas and live bullets were shot. That’s all I can say for now.”
Joyce Abdulmalik, of the Federal High Court, Abuja, heard on Wednesday, how Zenith Bank raised alarm over the huge transaction in one of its branches by Abubakar Malami, former Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice (AGF-MoJ).
The bank said it immediately filed a Suspicious Transaction Report (STR) in respect to the transactions, during its appearance in the ongoing trial of Malami, his wife, and son over allegation of massive looting of funds belonging to the Federal Government during his tenure.
Mashelia Bata, a compliance officer with the bank, who appeared as witness in the case, where Malami, et al, are facing a 16-count charge bordering on alleged money laundering to the tune of N8.7 billion, to which they pleaded not guilty, gave the testimony while being questioned on the bank’s roles in the matter.
Details of the testimony conveyed by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), stated how the compliance officer who was cross-examined by Adebayo Adedeji, lawyer to the defendants admitted that the deposits in the account statements complied with the guidelines of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
Arguments had stretched when Adedeji, opposed Jibrin Okutepa (SAN), lawyer to the EFCC, who had asked the witness to explain the meaning of a suspicious transaction report, stressing that there was no ambiguity in the term.
However, Okutepa, in response, maintained that section 215(3) of the Evidence Act did not preclude him from re-examining the witness while urging the court to allow the question for proper explanation.
After Abdulmalik, agreed and overruled Adedeji, the witness told the court that banks were required to alert the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) about fund deposits coming in a repetitive pattern, adding: “Any deposition of funds seen in a pattern or repetitive, you must escalate it to the NFIU.”
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