Nigeria’s debt has nearly quadrupled in three years, and Peter Obi wants answers on where the money went.

Peter Obi is not happy with how the government is handling Nigeria’s finances. The Nigeria Democratic Congress presidential candidate for 2027 has criticised President Bola Tinubu’s administration over what he calls excessive borrowing and poor accountability, cbinews.tv reports.

Obi says Nigeria’s total public debt has now hit around N200 trillion. He blames what he describes as imprudent governance under the current administration.

To put that in perspective, he pointed out that the debt level has gone up by more than N100 trillion in just three years. That compares with about N49 trillion accumulated during former President Muhammadu Buhari’s eight years in office.

The former Labour Party presidential flagbearer in the 2023 election shared his views in a statement posted on his X handle on Tuesday. He said the situation shows a lack of accountability and transparency in how borrowed funds are managed.

Quoting figures from the Budget Office, Obi said the government borrowed N11.89 trillion in the first three quarters of 2025, from January to September. That is about N1.54 trillion more than the planned borrowing target of N10.34 trillion. He argued that such an overrun should come with scrutiny and clear explanations from the relevant authorities.

He also claimed that only N3.10 trillion of the borrowed money went to capital expenditure between January and September 2025. That is just 17.66 per cent of the N17.58 trillion set aside for capital projects. It leaves a funding gap of around N14.48 trillion. Obi questioned how the rest of the funds were used.

Nigeria has been dealing with rising debt pressure since the Tinubu administration kicked off major reforms in mid 2023. Those reforms included removing fuel subsidies and unifying the foreign exchange market.

The moves were meant to fix fiscal distortions but they also triggered inflation spikes, naira volatility and higher living costs. They also increased the local currency burden of debt servicing.

President Tinubu said in May 2026 that Nigeria plans to spend about 11.6 billion dollars on debt servicing in 2026.

Supporters of the government argue that the borrowing is needed for critical infrastructure. But critics warn the country could fall into a debt without growth trap.

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