Nigeria’s borrowing spree sparks call for urgent action at economic conference

It began as a cartoon circulating wildly on social media on the day of the conference.

The image celebrated a fictitious award: the “Loan D’or”, a caricature of the famous “Ballon D’or” for what it mockingly described as “outstanding achievement in borrowing and passing the burden like a boss.”

Beneath the human imagery of the cartoon were the cryptic words: “Bills going up↑, No Light, No Job, Na GOD dey help us!”

The cartoon spread like wildfire. But nowhere was the subject it lampooned examined with greater seriousness than at the “17th Blakey’s National Tax & Economic Conference” held in Lagos under the theme: “The Master’s Borrowings in Nigeria.”

Four guest speakers, including Mr. Emeka Atuma, Dr. Patrick Ossai PhD, Pastor Felix Jarikre, and Mrs. Gloria Okwuosa, dissected Nigeria’s borrowing story from economic, psychological, social, and spiritual dimensions, a debt profile that has alarmed analysts and ordinary citizens alike.

At the centre of the debate is a fundamental question: can Nigeria sustain its current borrowing trajectory while still building the productive capacity needed to repay its obligations? What moral burden does today’s debt place on generations not yet born?

The analysts delivered a verdict that was by turns alarming, analytical, and deeply philosophical.

Chief Blakey Okwudili Ijezie, founder of the Blakey Ijezie Foundation and convener of the conference, set the philosophical tone in his keynote address with a critical question he said history will ask of this generation: “Not how much did we borrow — but what did we build with what we borrowed?”

The entire gamut of the fiscal picture presented by the guest speakers reveals a debt profile that has expanded dramatically under the current administration.

Dr. Ossai said the scale and speed of Nigeria’s debt accumulation is frightening, citing reliable sources of his data including Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), and the Debt Management Office (DMO). Hear him:

All the speakers agreed that the scale and speed of debt accumulation over a very short time is frightening, and raises serious fiscal sustainability concerns.

For many participants at the conference, Nigeria’s borrowing pattern signals a decisive and dangerous shift — from development financing toward what one speaker described as survival financing.

Yet, as participants examined both the data and the governance behaviour behind it, a broader consensus emerged: the deeper problem is not borrowing itself, but the absence of a transparent, productivity-linked framework that ties every loan to measurable economic returns.

In his keynote address, Chief Blakey Okwudili Ijezie, said borrowing is an intergenerational ethical instrument rather than merely a fiscal tool.

He added, however, that implementation has slowed considerably due to political headwinds, and expressed hope that reforms would be pursued more comprehensively after the elections.

The industry and academic experts elaborated extensively on both the data and the structural risks embedded in Nigeria’s current trajectory.

Dr. Patrick Ossai, who titled his presentation as “The Thrills and Flops of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s Borrowing Policies”, acknowledged measured progress on debt sustainability ratios while sounding a sharp warning on pace and purpose.

Mr. Emeka Atuma, a Banking & Finance expert and Data Scientist, brought the discussion home, challenging the government’s budget arithmetic directly.

Pastor Felix Jarikre addressed the psychological and spiritual underpinnings of Nigeria’s debt culture, examining how the psychology of easy oil money has eroded national discipline and how communities now bear the social weight of fiscal recklessness long after policy cycles turn.

Mrs. Gloria Okwuosa, a PhD candidate at Covenant University, grounded the discussion in academic and wellness frameworks, exploring the social and human development consequences of a fiscal posture that consistently prioritises creditor confidence over citizen welfare.

Nigeria’s public debt is estimated at approximately N149.28 trillion as of December 2025, with projections suggesting it could approach N193 trillion by end-2026.

All four conference speakers agreed that borrowing is not inherently wrong but condemned the lack of a transparent, productivity-linked framework connecting loans to measurable economic outcomes.

Speakers warned that continuing to borrow primarily to finance recurrent deficits, without commensurate productive investment, places an unjust and compounding fiscal burden on future generations of Nigerians who had no voice in contracting the debt.