Adewole Adebayo, the 2023 presidential candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), has dismissed claims that President Bola Tinubu’s foreign engagements have secured $50 billion in investments for Nigeria.
Adebayo spoke during his appearance on the 90MinutesAfrica
interview with Rudolf Okonkwo, questioning the economic impact of the alleged
inflows and accusing the administration of making exaggerated claims.
He said that the $50 billion figure being quoted by the
government is too significant to go unnoticed in the country’s economic
performance.
“The statement that President Tinubu’s frequent foreign
trips have attracted $50 billion worth of investments into the economy sounds
impressive, but the evidence of it is lacking,” Adebayo said.
The lawyer argued that even major global economies such as
the United States, China, or Saudi Arabia would consider $50 billion a
substantial inflow.
He maintained that if such an amount had entered Nigeria’s
economy, it would have had visible effects on the national budget, corporate
financing, and overall gross domestic product (GDP).
Adebayo said he had examined public and private sector
budgets, stock exchange listings, bank recapitalisation exercises, and
public-private partnership (PPP) financing structures in the country, insisting
that “nothing close to such money is there.”
According to him, the funds were yet to materialise, or the
claims had been overly exaggerated.
The SDP chieftain accused the government of lacking
credibility, alleging that it relies on telling “big lies” with the hope that
people will be reluctant to debunk them.
“The government should focus on accounting for the monies we
are actually generating in the economy,” he said.
Adebayo further claimed that a large portion of Nigeria’s
wealth remains unaccounted for in official records, which he argued is
contributing to the country’s shrinking economy.
Beyond the investment claims, the ex-presidential candidate
also criticised what he described as the increasing centralisation of power
under the Tinubu administration.
He alleged that the government is working to consolidate
political, administrative, military, and economic structures in a manner that
concentrates power at the top.
“This has gone beyond the five leprosy fingers of Abacha
that Bola Ige talked about,” Adebayo argued.
“It is now a black hole where everything has formed into a
singularity, and once you enter, there is no escape.”
Adebayo added that if the president knew “where oxygen is
being supplied to Nigeria”, the government would regulate it in a way that
restricts access only to loyalists, describing what he sees as an attempt to
exert control across institutions, including the media, civil society, clergy,
and even the electoral process.
BACKGROUND
On March 4, 2025, Jumoke Oduwole, minister for industry,
trade and investment, said Tinubu’s foreign trips have accumulated $50.8
billion in proposed investments.
Speaking during a ministerial press briefing held in Abuja,
Oduwole said the huge investment had come from Tinubu’s 30 international trips
as of December 2024.
She said during one of the president’s trips to Brazil in
2025 on the sidelines of the G20, meat producers in the world announced that
they would invest $2.5 billion in Nigeria.
The minister, citing statistics that Nigeria’s economy needs
about $50 billion to be steady in terms of foreign exchange (FX), said the
federal government then needed to ensure that the investments come to fruition.
In response to criticisms from the opposition, Nentawe
Yilwatda, national chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), re-echoed
the minister’s claim in a statement issued on February 3 by Abimbola Tooki, his
special adviser on media and communications strategy.
He described Tinubu’s foreign trips as strategic and
economically driven rather than ceremonial.
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