The presidential candidate of the Nigerian Democratic Congress (NDC), Peter Obi, has said Nigerians deserve a detailed and transparent explanation of what happened to the country’s economy and financial resources since 2023.
In a statement titled ‘Exponential increase in revenue with excessive borrowing: Yet more hardship for Nigerians,’ Obi said Nigerians also want a stop to the imprudent, unaccountable, and opaque management of our common patrimony.
He highlighted that, in celebrating three years of his administration, President Bola Tinubu included among his achievements an increase in revenue from N16.8 trillion in 2022 to N35 trillion in 2025 – an increase of over 100 per cent.
“Shockingly, while Nigerians expected a reduction in borrowing with the exponential increase in revenue, the opposite is the case. In just three years, President Bola Tinubu’s government seems to be obsessed with excessive and imprudent borrowing, with our total debt currently about N200 trillion—a deeply disturbing increase of over N100 trillion,” Obi said.
He noted that in addition to the exponential increases in both revenue and debt, Nigeria has earned far more than the budget revenue targets due to global and regional geoeconomic and political tensions.
“Alarmingly, even with the astronomical increase in both revenue and debt, almost all key socio-economic and governance indicators are worse than in 2023. Multi-dimensional poverty has increased from 87 million people in 2023 to over 140 million people in 2025. Rapidly increasing unemployment and a decline in GDP per capita from $1,597 in 2023 to $1,223 in 2025, and the list goes on,” Obi said.
Lamenting hardship in the country, Obi said the question Nigerians and even the international community are asking is, “Where did all the money go?”
