Atiku tackles Tinubu over fresh N3.3trn power debt bond, demands full disclosure

Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has criticised President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s plan to raise a fresh bond to settle power sector debts, describing the move as a “display of fiscal recklessness, institutional dishonesty, and contempt for public accountability”.

In a statement on Sunday, his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, said Nigerians had every right to be outraged by what he called a recurring cycle of borrowing, deception, and non-disclosure under the Tinubu administration.

Atiku’s statement recalled that on December 20, 2025, the Federal Government announced the issuance of a ₦590 billion power sector bond to clear debts owed to generation companies and gas suppliers. A ₦501 billion bond issued under the same programme recorded full subscription shortly after, with assurances it would be deployed to settle verified obligations. In April 2026, Tinubu approved a separate ₦3.3 trillion plan to clear power sector debts, and during his June 12 Democracy Day address, the President touted a fresh debt-clearing initiative as evidence of his administration’s commitment to reform.

Atiku’s camp argued that despite these repeated interventions, the Association of Power Generation Companies has publicly disclosed that the debts remain largely unpaid. The Chief Executive Officer of the association, Joy Ogaji, said the ₦501 billion bond raised months ago to settle a negotiated portion of the debt remains unresolved.

The former vice president cited an African proverb about a man who returns to the marketplace with the same goat he claimed to have sold the previous day, drawing a parallel with the power sector debt which is supposedly settled every few months only to reappear at the next funding window.

Atiku called on the Federal Government to provide a comprehensive account of all funds previously raised for the power sector and to publish details of the projects they were meant to fund. The statement also dismissed suggestions that the latest bond would end the sector’s liquidity crisis, saying past experience had shown otherwise.

Tinubu had in his Democracy Day message said his administration would raise a bond to tackle legacy power sector debt, a remark that has continued to generate debate among opposition figures and policy analysts.

Sources: Vanguard, Daily Post