By Juliet Umeh

As Nigeria marks the second anniversary of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration, a strong call has been made for a shift away from the nation’s borrowing culture.

In an open letter to the President, the Country Director of GOALPrime Organisation Nigeria, Professor Christopher Chinedumuije, described the continued reliance on foreign loans to fund national projects as “fiscally irresponsible, economically unjust, and morally indefensible.”

He urged both the President and the 36 state governors to adopt more sustainable and productive economic strategies.

Chinedumuije said: “I once again write to you not as a critic, but as a concerned citizen and patriot who sees a nation gradually collapsing under the weight of borrowed survival.”

He added that, “As we commemorate two years into the Renewed Hope Administration and as states begin preparing their 2026 budgets, one truth must be accepted without excuses: Nigeria cannot continue to borrow to fund the national budget. This cycle is fiscally irresponsible, economically unjust, and morally indefensible.”

According to him, “while relying on statistics from the Debt Management Office, DMO, Nigeria’s total public debt stock as of December 2024 stood at N97.3 trillion (about $115 billion), adding that “debt servicing alone accounted for N8.25 trillion, more than 74 percent of the total projected federal revenue for 2024 (Budget Office, 2024).

“In Q1 2025, debt servicing consumed over 90 percent of federal retained revenue (CSEA Nigeria, 2025; BudgIT, 2025).

“We are borrowing to pay salaries. We are borrowing to run ministries. We are borrowing to maintain a bloated, inefficient government. This is not governance. It is slow national asphyxiation.”

Chinedumuije urged President Tinubu to reduce borrowing by decentralizing development efforts, assigning clear responsibilities for primary healthcare, basic education, and rural infrastructure to states and local governments, along with adequate funding.

He said: “Establish State and LGA Development Coordination Councils empowered to manage donor projects and national social investments.

“Incentivize state-led innovations through competitive development grants from the federal government and development partners.

“Your Excellencies, while I have highlighted what we need to do differently, it is also important that I be generous to highlight the consequences of inaction.

“If the above recommendations are ignored, we must brace for national insolvency Fitch Ratings downgraded Nigeria’s credit outlook in 2024, citing unsustainable debt trajectory.

“With 20 million out-of-school children and healthcare spending at just 4% of the budget, we are heading toward systemic social collapse (UNICEF Nigeria, 2024).

“Youth unemployment is at 53% (NBS Q4 Report, 2024). Hunger, anger, and hopelessness are a dangerous mix.

“By 2050, Nigeria will become the 3rd most populous country in the world, but a population without productivity is a burden, not a blessing (UN Population Division, 2024).

“The IMF and World Bank have both warned that continued borrowing without reform will make Nigeria ineligible for concessional finance and investment guarantees (IMF Article IV, 2024).