Even Loan Apps Know When Debt Is Too Much
Since APC took over power in 2015, Nigeria’s debt has continued rising year after year while ordinary Nigerians keep sinking deeper into hardship.
Today, Nigeria reportedly owes around ₦159 trillion in total public debt.
The same Nigeria where:
businesses are collapsing,
graduates are jobless,
food prices are unbearable,
the naira keeps falling,
and millions of citizens are struggling daily just to survive.
Yet the borrowing continues.
The World Bank.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF).
The African Development Bank (AfDB).
China Exim Bank.
Eurobond lenders.
All continue lending money to the Nigerian government.
The World Bank alone remains one of Nigeria’s biggest external creditors.
China keeps financing major infrastructure loans.
The IMF gave Nigeria billions during the COVID era.
And local borrowing through bonds and treasury bills keeps increasing.
Now Nigerians are asking serious questions:
What exactly is the long-term repayment plan?
How does a country already drowning in debt continue borrowing almost every year while citizens see little improvement in their daily lives?
Even ordinary loan apps in Nigeria stop giving people loans once they discover you already owe three or four platforms.
So why do international lenders still keep trusting APC governments with more loans despite Nigeria’s growing debt burden?
What are they seeing that ordinary Nigerians are not seeing?
Because the average citizen is not feeling economic recovery.
The average Nigerian is feeling pressure.
More taxes.
More inflation.
More hardship.
More suffering.
More survival.
And the painful part is this:
the children of ordinary Nigerians may spend years paying for debts they never benefited from.
Nigeria cannot continue borrowing endlessly without visible productivity, industrial growth, security, stable electricity, stronger institutions, and real economic expansion.
At some point, Nigerians deserve honesty.
Are these loans building the future…
or simply postponing collapse?
__ Enim
Please release these children for the sake of our shared humanity
I am deeply shocked and heartbroken by the condition in which these abducted school children are, as seen from their flagellated bodies. It is a painful reminder of the depth of insecurity in our land.
I have always made it clear that the society we abuse today will take its revenge on our children tomorrow. When I first began making that statement, some of these children were not even born. This is a classic example of how the abuse of governance and society today can produce devastating consequences long after the abusers are gone.
It is on the same line that I argue that the loans our leaders take today will hurt our children in the future, as many of them will mature for repayment and consequences long after we are gone.
To those holding these children, I make a direct appeal to your conscience. Remember that these are innocent children - sons and daughters of people who have placed their hopes, dreams, and entire future in them. In every one of them, you will find reflections of your own children, your own family, and your own humanity.
No grievance, no hardship, no justification can ever outweigh the sanctity of a child’s life and innocence. Whatever path has led to this moment, there is still room for remorse, for humanity, and for a change of heart.
I therefore appeal to your sense of mercy: release these children immediately. Let them go. Return them safely to society to reunite with their families. -PO
Teachers in northeastern Nigeria march in Maiduguri demanding the release of 42 abducted schoolchildren in Borno State and stronger school protection.
Al Jazeera’s Felix Nyawara reports.