CNPP, Civil Society Groups Kick Against Tinubu’s $1.75bn World Bank Loan Plan, Warn of Rising Public Anger

 

In a strongly worded joint statement, the Conference of Nigeria Political Parties (CNPP) and the Coalition of National Civil Society Organisations (CNCSOs) have condemned the Federal Government’s plan to contract a fresh $1.75 billion loan from the World Bank, describing it as reckless, insensitive, and a betrayal of the Nigerian people.

The two groups, representing political stakeholders and over seventy-five civil society organisations nationwide, expressed shock that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration is seeking additional loans despite what they described as “unprecedented revenue collections within the last eight months.” 

They warned that the plan would “not only undermine the government’s credibility but also plunge ordinary Nigerians into deeper suffering while eroding any hope for sustainable economic recovery.”

According to the statement jointly signed by Comrade James Ezema, Deputy National Publicity Secretary of CNPP, and Alhaji Ali Abacha, National Secretary of CNCSOs, the fresh borrowing move exposes “the duplicity that now characterises the fiscal direction of this administration.” 

The groups pointed out that “only days ago, Nigerians were told by the President himself that revenue targets for 2025 had already been surpassed ahead of schedule and that the country would no longer rely on borrowing to finance its budget.”

Citing official figures, the statement recalled that “revenue performance between January and August 2025 stood at N20.59 trillion, representing an impressive 40.5 percent increase compared with the same period in 2024. This is the highest revenue performance in recent history, largely driven by non-oil revenue which now accounts for seventy-five percent of total collections. If this is the case, why then should Nigeria be saddled with additional debt when the same government boasts of surplus revenue inflows?”

The CNPP and CNCSOs argued that “Nigeria does not have a revenue generation problem but a reckless looting, diversion, and mismanagement problem.” 

They accused public officials of colluding with cronies and contractors to siphon the commonwealth into private bank accounts, insisting that “what the administration ought to be doing is to recover these stolen funds and return them to the Federation Account.”

They therefore demanded that President Tinubu “urgently constitute a high-powered presidential judicial panel with the clear mandate to trace, audit, and recover looted public funds.” The groups stressed that such a panel must “thoroughly examine all loans secured by past administrations, investigate how they were deployed, expose the channels of misappropriation, and compel recovery into the public treasury.” Anything short of this, they said, “would amount to political deception and betrayal of the masses who are already suffocating under policies that have stripped them of their livelihoods.”

Painting a grim picture of life in today’s Nigeria, the organisations said that “since the hasty and unplanned removal of fuel subsidy two years ago, the masses have been crushed by skyrocketing fuel costs which ripple through every aspect of life from food prices to transportation.” They lamented that “electricity tariffs have risen astronomically even as power supply remains epileptic, while citizens are compelled to buy prepaid meters at exorbitant costs even though these meters technically belong to distribution companies and not to the buyers.”

They criticised new taxes and levies such as “the five percent petroleum tax that will make a Nigerian barber or hairdresser who buys N5,000 fuel to power their generators because of lack of electricity to pay N500 tax and the punitive N50 charge on every N10,000 transfer.” According to them, these burdens “weigh heavily on poor Nigerians who struggle to make ends meet” in a country already ravaged by unemployment and underemployment.

The groups said the consequences of these economic realities are evident in the rising number of sudden deaths “as Nigerians collapse daily under the weight of untreated illnesses, high blood pressure, hunger, and hopelessness.” Families, they warned, “are disintegrating under economic pressure, while young people increasingly turn to financial crimes as desperate means of survival.” They added that the worsening “japa syndrome” continues to drain the country of skilled professionals, a development they blamed squarely on “policies that make life unbearable for hardworking citizens while rewarding corruption and waste at the top.”

On the morality of the new loan, the groups declared: “It is morally wrong for leaders who live in luxury, travel in private jets, and enjoy lavish allowances to continue enslaving the people with loans whose benefits never reach ordinary citizens.” They stressed that “debt servicing is already consuming the bulk of Nigeria’s revenues, leaving very little for capital investment” and argued that each new loan “does not translate into jobs, infrastructure, or better living standards for the masses but rather fuels a cycle of waste, diversion, and repayment obligations that cripple the economy further.”

They cautioned President Tinubu that “the path his administration is treading is unsustainable and dangerous,” warning that “the patience of the masses will eventually run out, and history has shown that no government survives once the people lose their fear and decide to take their destiny into their own hands.”

Reiterating their call for a change in direction, CNPP and CNCSOs insisted that “the solution to Nigeria’s fiscal challenges is not to borrow endlessly but to confront corruption frontally, recover stolen funds, cut wasteful expenditures, and invest honestly in sectors that generate jobs and growth.”

The statement concluded with a stern warning: “Nigeria cannot continue to borrow to fund corruption. The resources to rebuild this country exist within its borders and in the bank accounts of those who stole them. Until those resources are recovered and justice is done, no new loan should be contemplated, let alone approved.”

Signed, 

Comrade James Ezema 

Deputy National Publicity Secretary

CNPP

Alhaji Ali Abacha, 

National Secretary, 

CNCSOs.