Former vice president and People’s Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate Atiku Abubakar has chastised the Bola Tinubu-led government for the $3.3 billion emergency crude repayment loan that the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) obtained last year.
Atiku referred to the loan arrangement as a “shady” and “inconceivable” transaction that casts doubt on the federal government’s honesty and openness in a tweet that was posted on Thursday.
He added that the goal of the loan arrangement, which comprised a special purpose vehicle (SPV) registered in the Bahamas and was handled by the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank), was to stabilise the foreign exchange market and strengthen the naira.
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He asserted that the terms and circumstances of the loan, which he stated will cost the nation $12 billion in crude oil repayment, have not been adequately disclosed to the public by the federal government.
According to him, the loan agreement would oblige Nigeria to provide the SPV with 90,000 barrels of its daily output beginning in 2024 and continuing until it reached 164.25 million barrels.
According to him, this would mean that the loan amount and the repayment value would differ by a “humongous differential of about $7b.”In addition, he questioned the government’s decision to register an SPV in the Bahamas, a well-known tax haven that came to light after the 2017 Paradise Papers incident.
Atiku insisted on receiving responses from the federal government to the following queries:
1. Has the federal government accessed the loan?
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2. Is the loan in the government’s borrowing plan as approved by the National Assembly?
3. Who are the parties to the loan, and what specific roles are they expected to play?
4. What are the conditions to the loan, including tenor, repayment terms, the collateral, and the interest rate?
5. And, lastly, why register an SPV in the Bahamas knowing the recent scandal of the country’s notoriety for warehousing unclean assets?
Nigerians have responded to Atiku’s tweet in a big way, sharing their thoughts and worries about the loan agreement as well as the health of the country’s economy under the Tinubu administration.
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