The Presidency has dismissed as misleading claims that President Bola Tinubu borrowed ₦120 trillion in just three years while also removing the fuel subsidy.
In a statement posted on X on Sunday, Special Assistant to the President on Social Media, Dada Olusegun, described the figures as the product of “Opposition’s propaganda machines.”He rejected the comparison that 16 past Nigerian leaders borrowed a combined ₦46 trillion over 63 years, while Tinubu borrowed ₦120 trillion in three years.“
Opposition’s propaganda machines claim that in 63 years, 16 past Nigerian leaders borrowed ₦46 trillion combined, while President Tinubu borrowed ₦120 trillion in just 3 years and still removed the fuel subsidy.“But in reality, the ₦46 trillion figure from late 2022 hid ₦22.7 trillion in Central Bank ‘Ways and Means’ overdrafts that weren’t officially put on the books until May 2023,” Olusegun stated.
He added that earlier calculations converted foreign debt using an artificial exchange rate of ₦448 to $1, when the street value was over ₦700.“When the exchange rate was unified in June 2023, the exact same dollar debt instantly looked ₦13.4 trillion larger on paper overnight without a single new dollar being borrowed.”
In actual dollar terms, Nigeria’s public debt rose from $113.4 billion in June 2023 to $120.9 billion by June 2026 an increase of only $7.5 billion, he said.On the fuel subsidy, Olusegun noted that its removal had boosted monthly Federation Account Allocation Committee funds shared to states and local governments from ₦656 billion in April 2023 to ₦2.4 trillion by September 2026.
The claims being rebutted originated from a viral social media graphic comparing cumulative borrowing under previous administrations with the Tinubu government’s record.Fact-checkers have described the graphic as misleading because the ₦46 trillion figure represented outstanding debt at the end of 2022 rather than total borrowing by 16 leaders over 63 years, and because it did not adequately account for exchange-rate effects or the formal recognition of previously off-book obligations.
Nigeria’s total public debt stood at approximately ₦87.38 trillion (about $113.4 billion) in June 2023, shortly after Tinubu took office. By June 2026 it had risen to about ₦166.79 trillion ($120.93 billion), according to Debt Management Office figures.A large part of the naira increase stemmed from the 2023 naira float and the securitisation of Ways and Means advances inherited from the previous administration.
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