The presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress, ADC, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, has called President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and the All Progressives Congress, APC-controlled Federal Government, ridiculing the Presidency as celebrating debt figures as though indebtedness is an economic achievement.

He berated the presidency over unprecedented increasing borrowings and the corresponding economic decay and hardship in the country.

Atiku, in a statement on Thursday by his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, berated the Presidency over uncontrollable appetite for high borrowing profile, and the assertion that "Nigeria’s borrowing level is lower than that of some African countries".

Atiku ridiculed Tinubu for paradoxical celebration of high indebtedness and debt trap as achievements, while the country is ravaged by hardship, hunger and deprivation; as well as intractable insecurity, demise of industries stimulating unemployment, and rising costs of doing business.

According to Atiku, “It is both astonishing and insulting that at a time when millions of Nigerians can barely afford one meal a day, when parents are withdrawing children from school because of crushing hardship, when businesses are collapsing under unbearable electricity tariffs and inflation, and when entire communities are being overrun by terrorists, bandits, and kidnappers, the Presidency is celebrating debt figures as though indebtedness, itself, were an economic achievement.”

Atiku further berated the Tinubu administration for borrowing to fiancé consumption and sustain wasteful government lifestyles.

The ADC presidential candidate stated that loans should be disbursed to projects development to improve production and manufacture, create jobs and strengthen infrastructure.

Atiku further declared: “Villages are sacked almost routinely while those in power appear more concerned about image management than decisive action. What exactly are Nigerians benefiting from all these loans if insecurity continues to spread and the economy continues to suffocate?

“No nation becomes prosperous by borrowing to finance consumption, sustain wasteful government lifestyles, and paper over policy failures. Countries that borrow responsibly do so to expand productivity, create jobs, secure critical infrastructure, and improve the welfare of their citizens. In Nigeria today, however, citizens see no correlation between the mounting debt profile and improvement in their daily lives.”