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From Ndubuisi Orji, Abuja
Former vice president, Atiku Abubakar, has called for audit of the utilisation of the N501 billion bond issued recently by the Federal Government for the settlement of power sector debts.
Atiku said an audit of the N501 billion bond has become necessary following the disclosure by the Executive Secretary of the Association of Power Generation Companies (APGC), Joy Ogaji that the bond has allegedly not been fully disbursed.
Atiku, in a statement by his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, yesterday, said the disclosure by the APGC had presented compelling evidence that the Federal Government’s repeated bond issuances have allegedly become an endless cycle of borrowing without accountability.
Ogaji recently faulted the government’s claims on the level of disbursement of the N501 billion bond, challenging the government to publish the list of beneficiaries.
Atiku, who is also the African Democratic Congress (ADC) 2027 presidential candidate, charged the National Assembly, the Auditor-General of the Federation and every institution charged with safeguarding public funds to insist on a comprehensive public audit of all power sector intervention funds raised under the President Bola Tinubu administration.
According to him, the government should publish the names of every generation company that received payment, the amount paid to each beneficiary, the dates the payments were made and the outstanding balances, insisting that public money cannot disappear into official press statements and that every Naira borrowed in the name of Nigerians must be traceable to its destination.
He noted that the startling disclosure by the Executive Secretary of the APGC, Dr. Joy Ogaji, that the much-publicised N501 billion bond has not even been fully disbursed, despite repeated government’s claims to the contrary, raises grave questions about transparency, fiscal discipline and the credibility of the administration’s economic management.
“Even more damning is her challenge to the Federal Government to publish the complete list of beneficiaries, the amounts paid to each generation company and the dates of such payments, if indeed, the money has been released.
“For months, Nigerians have been inundated with announcements of bond after bond supposedly floated to clear power sector debts. First, came the promise of a N590 billion intervention. Then, came the N501 billion bond, celebrated as a major breakthrough. Before long, the country was told about a multi-trillion-Naira settlement programme.
“Today, another debt package is being contemplated while the very companies the government claims to have settled insist that the liabilities have continued to grow. This is no longer a policy failure. It is a crisis of credibility.
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“The question is no longer whether the government is borrowing. The question is why Nigerians are repeatedly being asked to applaud fresh borrowing to solve a problem that the government insists it solved only yesterday.
“If the earlier interventions worked, why is another intervention necessary? If the debts were substantially cleared, why are the creditors saying otherwise? If the government has faithfully discharged its obligations, why has the Association of Power Generation Companies publicly challenged the Minister’s claims and demanded documentary evidence?
“These are not opposition questions. They are industry questions. They deserve the government’s answers. The Federal Government should immediately accept Dr. Ogaji’s challenge,” he stated
Furthermore, Atiku stated that the President Tinubu administration believes that governance is an endless announcement, noting that every challenge is another ceremony.
“Every unresolved debt is answered with another borrowing plan. Yet, electricity generation remains constrained, investors remain uncertain, businesses continue to spend fortunes powering themselves and ordinary Nigerians still pay exorbitantly for darkness.
“A government that constantly changes the figures cannot expect citizens to trust its arithmetic. A government that celebrates disbursements which beneficiaries dispute cannot expect investors to trust its assurances. A government that asks future generations to repay debts incurred today has a moral obligation to account for every kobo borrowed.
“The Tinubu administration must stop moving the goalposts. It cannot continue to ask Nigerians to celebrate fresh debt while refusing to provide a transparent account of previous interventions. Governance is not measured by the size of bond issuances but by measurable outcomes. The objective is not to float more bonds; it is to solve the problem,” he said.
The former Vice President said the government must understand that transparency is a constitutional obligation.
“Nigerians are tired of official declarations that dissolve upon contact with reality. They deserve a government that accounts for yesterday’s borrowing before asking them to underwrite tomorrow’s debt.
“History will not remember how many bonds this administration floated. It will remember whether those bonds brought light to Nigerian homes or merely deepened the darkness of official opacity,” he stated.
