TMSG Berates ADC Over Criticism of Tinubu’s Borrowing Plan
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TMSG Berates ADC Over Criticism of Tinubu’s Borrowing Plan
By Alabidun Shuaib AbdulRahman
The Tinubu Media Support Group (TMSG) has faulted the African Democratic Congress (ADC) over its recent comments on the external borrowing plan of the Bola Tinubu administration, describing the opposition party’s stance as “a public display of political gamesmanship.”
INCNews247 recalls that the ADC, through its spokesman and former minister, Bolaji Abdullahi, had questioned recent loans approved for the Federal Government and called for a forensic audit of all borrowings by the All Progressives Congress (APC) governments since 2015, including details of disbursement and utilisation.
But in a statement jointly signed by its Chairman, Emeka Nwankpa, and Secretary, Dapo Okubanjo, TMSG accused Abdullahi of selective criticism, noting that he left out loans taken during the Goodluck Jonathan administration, in which he served as a cabinet minister.
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“We noticed that as part of efforts to present itself as a credible alternative to the APC, the ADC has decided to raise the issue of external borrowing in the last ten years,” TMSG said.
“Just like what it recently said on the issue of refineries, ADC opted to restrict itself to successive APC administrations and demanded a probe of what it described as fiscal vandalism by the last two governments. This is laughable.”
The group argued that Abdullahi’s position on the recently approved $21 billion 2024–2026 external borrowing plan was misleading, stressing that an approved borrowing plan did not translate to immediate debt accumulation.
“For us, there is no way a member of the Jonathan-led administration which sought and got approval of the 7th National Assembly for concessionary loans totalling $9.3 billion under its 2012–2014 Medium Term External Borrowing Plan could pretend not to know what it entails more than ten years after,” the statement read.
TMSG further stated that projects in the current borrowing plan have multi-year drawdowns of between five and seven years, including the Eastern railway corridor, adding that the external borrowing component in the 2025 budget is $1.23 billion.
On ADC’s call for a loan audit, TMSG said the scope should cover the 2010–2015 period, when the PDP administration earned N51 trillion from crude oil sales.
“While the APC administrations’ loans were project-tied with visible outcomes, the same could not be said of the preceding administrations,” it added.
The group also accused the ADC of internal contradictions, saying the party’s criticism indirectly questions the roles of its own senior members, including former Buhari ministers Abubakar Malami, Rotimi Amaechi, and Rauf Aregbesola.
“For us, if there is any proof of ADC as a motley assembly of strange bedfellows, united in their collective anger over loss of power and privileges, this is it,” TMSG said.
“We are waiting to see how this ill-thought-out statement triggers more tension in the ranks of an opposition party still struggling with an internal crisis of legitimacy.”
