MDPCO urges Tinubu to account for N11.2 trillion crude oil advance sale

• Says APC is Mortgaging Nigeria

The Makinde-Daura Presidential Campaign Organisation (MDPCO) has demanded an open inquest into President Bola Tinubu administration’s reported commitment of approximately 340 million barrels of Nigeria’s future crude oil production for separate foreign loans amounting to about N11.2 trillion.

This demand for public accountability follows revelations that the Federal Government, through opaque financing arrangements under the Project Gazelle, Project Gazelle II, Project Leopard and Project Leopard II, has committed a huge part of Nigeria’s future crude oil production on loans, whose repayment obligations extend to 2034.

This was contained in a statement by MDPCO’s Director of Strategic Communications, Richard Nnanna Ihediwa.

Part of the statement read: “The scary implication is that the Tinubu administration has sold Nigeria’s patrimony in advance, sacrificing our tomorrow to finance today’s failures.

“We demand that Tinubu should give public explanation on the loan arrangements, including the identity of the lenders, the loan amounts, interest rates, management fees, repayment schedules and the precise volume of crude oil so far committed.

“Nigerians deserve to know the exact pricing formula governing these oil deliveries, the outstanding liabilities being refinanced and the total financial obligations arising from the transactions, as well as the financial burden on future generations of Nigeria.”

The MDPCO had warned weeks ago that the President was taking Nigeria down the path of Khedive Ismail’s Egypt, whose foreign borrowing and extravagant spending plunged the country into financial ruin, culminating in British occupation in 1882.

It stressed that a nation that repeatedly pledges its future revenues to finance present excesses risks surrendering its economic independence.

The organisation described as an unconscionable act of fiscal recklessness for the Tinubu administration to commit such enormous volumes of future crude oil production to debt without demonstrating commensurate investments in productive capacity, industrial development, infrastructure and improved living standards.

It noted that the implications of the fresh APC yoke extend beyond the tenure of the present administration, warning that by pre-empting future oil revenues, the arrangements could strangulate future generations with obligations arising from today’s financial recklessness.

“More alarming is that these fixed repayment terms are preventing Nigeria from fully benefiting from international oil prices increase, hence, limiting our access to future revenues while leaving the country with less financial freedom to meet its development obligations.

“More shocking is the contradiction between these incessant borrowings, near ‘asset stripping’ and the worsening material conditions of Nigerians.

“Nigerians are dying of hunger, public hospitals collapsing under chronic underfunding and major highways across the country, turning to death traps- yet, the government continues to secure loans without evidence of corresponding improvements in the economy.

“Nigerians are equally concerned about the apparent lack of public disclosure surrounding these transactions as a responsible, transparent commodity-backed financing.

“We reject any such commitment without demonstrable economic returns. Nigeria must not mortgage its future through opaque financial deals that offer no commensurate public value.

“We, therefore, task the National Assembly to subject these financing arrangements to rigorous legislative scrutiny, including an open public hearing. “It must demand the publication and examination of the relevant agreements, establish the full extent of Nigeria’s financial and crude oil commitments, while assessing their implications for Federation Account revenues and long-term fiscal sustainability.

“Economic success is not measured by borrowing or debt restructuring, but by tangible gains in production, jobs, infrastructure, industry and living standards,” the statement further said.

The campaign organisation urged Nigerians to recognise that the country cannot afford another cycle of economic experimentation, fiscal recklessness and unfulfilled promises.

“The 2027 presidential election offers Nigerians the opportunity to end the APC’s failed economic leadership and embrace Seyi Makinde’s RESET Nigeria vision on the platform of the Allied Peoples Movement (APM), anchored on productive economic management, transparent utilisation of national resources, industrial development, sustainable and impactful wealth creation,” the statement submitted.