ABUJA, Nigeria — The presidential candidate of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC), Mr. Peter Obi, has strongly criticized the federal government’s fiscal strategies, warning that Nigeria’s unprecedented debt accumulation lacks the institutional transparency needed to justify its burden on future generations.
The opposition leader issued his critique on Thursday, June 18, 2026, comparing Nigeria’s structural fiscal approach directly against South Africa’s recent transparent execution of international development loans.
Okay News reports that Obi’s statement follows a formal announcement by the Shanghai-based New Development Bank (NDB)—the multilateral lender established by the BRICS bloc—approving a critical $1 billion (approximately ₦1.8 trillion) urban infrastructure recovery loan for South Africa. The facility is explicitly targeted to fix severe municipal deficits across eight major metropolitan hubs, including Johannesburg, Cape Town, and Durban, with clear project milestones earmarked for water supply rehabilitation, modernizing sanitation grids, and stabilizing electricity distribution pipelines.
The former Anambra State Governor argued that while borrowing is an essential macroeconomic tool for national development, its value is entirely dependent on administrative accountability and measurable public impacts. Mr. Peter Obi expressed deep worry over Nigeria’s rapidly soaring public debt portfolio, which has risen sharply from ₦87 trillion in 2023 to nearly ₦200 trillion under the current administration, yet remains obscured by opaque budgetary deployments. Demanding absolute fiscal discipline, Obi maintained that every loan secured in the name of the Nigerian public must be directly tied to high-yield productive investments in healthcare, power, and agriculture rather than funding ongoing consumption expenses.
