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 said the claim that 16 past Nigerian leaders borrowed a combined ₦46 trillion over 63 years, while Tinubu borrowed ₦120 trillion in three years, does not reflect the full picture.
“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, he said, 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.
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 that compared cumulative borrowing under previous administrations with the Tinubu government’s record and highlighted the subsidy removal.
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.
The latest rebuttal comes after Tinubu asked the Senate to approve the implementation of a $7.7bn external borrowing plan to part-finance the 2026 budget deficit.
The request, which translates to about N10.79tn at the budget exchange rate of N1,400 to the dollar, was conveyed in a letter read by the President of the Senate, Godswill Akpabio, during Wednesday’s plenary.
The request replaced an earlier approval for $20.52bn and €1.045bn borrowings that the President had asked the Senate and the House of Representatives for a week earlier.
However, opposition parties, including the Nigeria Democratic Congress, criticised the request, citing concerns about the country’s rising debt burden and its implications for future generations.