$100bn, question every Nigerian must ask

By Abel Lazarus

Let us put the party aside for a moment. Forget All Progressive Congress (APC), forget Nigerian Democratic Congress (NDC), forget People’s Democratic Party (PDP), forget Labour Party (LP). Forget whether you voted for President Bola Tinubu in 2023 or whether you voted against him. Forget whether you love Peter Obi or you cannot stand him.

There is a question on the table that belongs to all of us, and no meaningful Nigerian should keep quiet about it: *What has been done with the over $100 billion borrowed by this administration?

That question was raised again on Saturday, November 7, by Peter Obi, presidential candidate of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC), when he challenged President Bola Tinubu to account for the ₦15.8 trillion saved from the removal of fuel subsidy, the over $100 billion borrowed, the increased revenues from taxing Nigerians, and the additional government revenues which the administration itself celebrated as having surpassed its target.

Obi asked a simple, measurable question: How many Nigerians have been lifted out of poverty? How many out-of-school children have been returned to school? How many functional primary healthcare centres have been built?

That is not an opposition question. That is a Nigerian question.

Understand What $100 Billion Really Means

To understand why silence is not an option, we must understand the size of the figure in our own currency.

As of this morning, Monday, November 9, 2026, the official Nigerian Foreign Exchange Market (NFEM) rate stood at approximately ₦1,346.79 per dollar, based on the November 6 market data published by the Central Bank of Nigeria. In the parallel market, the dollar was quoted at approximately ₦1,415 to ₦1,430.

Do the mathematics:

$100 billion x ₦1,346.79 = ₦134,679,000,000,000

That is ₦134.68 trillion at the official rate.

At the parallel market rate of ₦1,415, it is ₦141.5 trillion. At ₦1,430, it is ₦143 trillion.

Let that sink in. One hundred billion dollars is not an abstract figure in Abuja. It is more than the entire annual budget of Nigeria for several years combined. It is money enough to rebuild every federal road in this country, equip every primary healthcare centre, put a functional classroom and teacher in every community, fix power transmission, and still have change left to invest in production.

When a government borrows that much in the name of the people, the people have a right — indeed a duty — to ask: where is it?

Borrowing is not the crime, silence is

To be fair, borrowing in itself is not a crime. Every serious nation borrows. America borrows. China borrows. Even the most prudent government borrows to build infrastructure that will pay for itself tomorrow.

President Tinubu himself has defended borrowing, insisting that loans can be necessary to finance government activities, provided the country works hard to repay them.

But borrowing without transparent accounting is a crime against the future. Because debt does not die with an administration. Debt is inherited by our children and our grandchildren. When this government leaves office, the farmer in Onitsha, the trader in Kano, the teacher in Ibadan, the fisherman in Bayelsa, and the student in Maiduguri will still be paying for it through taxes, through inflation, through high interest rates, and through a devalued naira.

That is why accountability is not partisan. A supporter of the President should be even more eager to demand accountability than a critic, because if the money was well spent, the evidence will vindicate the President. If it were not, silence would only make the supporter complicit in his own impoverishment.

The government’s response proves why we must ask

Already, the Presidency has disputed the figure. Olusegun Dada, Special Assistant to the President on Social Media, argued that in actual dollars, Nigeria’s public debt went from $113.4 billion in June 2023 to $120.9 billion by June 2026 — an increase of only $7.5 billion, not $100 billion as claimed.

That dispute is exactly why we need a full, public, project-by-project account. Let the Debt Management Office, the Ministry of Finance, the Budget Office, and the National Assembly sit down and publish, in simple language that a market woman can understand:

1. How much was borrowed, from whom, at what interest rate, and for how long?
2. How much was approved but not yet drawn?
3. How much was actually received in cash?
4. Which specific project received which specific loan?
5. What is the state of that project today?

Nigerians are not asking for grammar. We are asking for evidence. Show us the road. Show us the hospital. Show us the school. Show us the power.

Obi himself noted that the figures are his assessment, and other reports have stressed that the $100 billion figure remains Obi’s claim and has not been independently established as a loan-by-loan total. That honesty should not weaken the demand; it should strengthen it. If the figure is wrong, let the government prove it with documents, not with press statements. If the figure is right, let the government prove the value with projects.

Why every Nigerian must join

This is not about 2027. This is not about who will be President. This is about whether Nigeria will remain a country where leaders can borrow in our name and refuse to explain.

Today, hunger is real. Unemployment is real. Insecurity has forced farmers off their farms. Hospitals are without drugs. Schools are without teachers. Power supply is epileptic. Yet we are told revenues have increased, subsidy savings have been mobilised, and borrowings have been huge.

If all that money truly entered this economy, why is life harder for the ordinary man?

The man in the North who cannot afford fertilizer, the woman in the South-East who cannot afford transport to her shop, the youth in the South-West who has a degree but no job, the family in the South-South whose community is polluted — all of them have a stake in this question.

Accountability is the oxygen of democracy. When citizens stop asking, leaders stop answering. When citizens stop watching, public money becomes private wealth.

Therefore, I join this call, irrespective of party affiliation. I call on civil society, the media, religious leaders, traditional rulers, students, traders, labour unions, professional bodies, and indeed every Nigerian — APC member or NDC member or non-partisan — to demand one thing:

Publish the full account of the $100 billion

Let the President go round Nigeria, as Obi suggested, and tell us what he did with the money in the past three years. Let him point to the projects. Let Nigerians judge for themselves.

We cannot build a great nation on borrowed money and borrowed silence.

The debt is ours. The question is ours. The demand must be ours, all of us.

Lazarus is Managing Editor, North, The Mirror Newspaper