Every Nigerian needs to pay very close attention to this official press release by the Finance Minister of Nigeria, Taiwo Oyedele. This serves as the direct response by the Federal Government to the International Monetary Fund 2026 Article IV Concluding Statement on Nigeria.
The recent IMF statement on Nigeria is overflowing with glowing praises for the Tinubu Administration and their supposedly brilliant economic policies.
The IMF is loudly cheering for the reunification of the foreign exchange market because the gap between the official and black market exchange rates has remained below 5%, which is absolutely fantastic for foreign investors since they love predictability, guaranteed margins, and zero currency friction. They also excitedly applaud the fact that Nigeria's foreign reserves have built back up, supposedly providing a comfortable cushion against global economic shocks. Finally, the IMF highly commended the Tinubu government's decisions to eliminate deficit monetization (which stopped the CBN from printing money to fund government projects) and to permanently remove petrol subsidies.
Now, the Tinubu Administration, speaking through the office of the Finance Minister, is proudly parading this IMF report like a shiny gold medal. They are framing this praise as an "independent validation" that their brutally painful economic policies over the past few years are finally yielding positive macroeconomic results. The glaring problem here is that this is not something Nigeria as a sovereign country should be celebrating, and this is entirely because of who the IMF actually works for and who dictates their underlying policies. The G7 nations and Western superpowers entirely control the IMF board, and the institution itself exists strictly to protect the financial interests of international creditor nations, massive global investment banks, ruthless hedge funds, and wealthy foreign bondholders. The primary job of the IMF is merely to ensure that the global financial system remains perfectly stable and that struggling developing nations never default on their massive, crippling debts to foreign creditors. Therefore, the IMF works exclusively for the lenders (the global financial-industrial complex), absolutely not for the bleeding borrowers like Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, or any other struggling African nation.
To see how bad this is, just observe this currency unification being praised by the IMF as a massive win for the Tinubu Administration. They are celebrating simply because the exchange rate is now mathematically stable and investors are finally happy. This is spectacularly good for foreign speculators, but it is deeply catastrophic for us because the currency stabilized at a spectacularly weaker level of N1,400 per dollar, compared to N770 in the black market and N450 in the official rate before this administration took over.
So yes, the currency is technically unified, but at a permanently crippled level. Since Nigeria is a heavily import-dependent economy, this unified weakness has made the cost of food, life-saving medicines, basic hospital bills, school fees, transportation, building materials, imported spare parts, and daily survival astronomical, thereby permanently destroying the purchasing power of everyday Nigerians.
Furthermore, the IMF congratulating the Tinubu Administration on increasing the country's foreign reserves might sound like brilliant news, until you suddenly realize that it is this exact, deliberate policy that violently crippled our local industries. Most of the money that makes up these bloated new foreign reserves was forcefully squeezed out of the removal of petrol subsidies, a move that has deeply suffocated our local businesses, artisans, manufacturers, and logistics companies who rely entirely on petrol generators to survive. But this is not even the full tragic story. Even the bloody change they violently squeezed out of the dying Nigerian middle class was not enough to impress these foreign investors. To aggressively entice them, the Tinubu Administration spiked the base interest rate from 18% up to a staggering 27%. This was no mistake. In the US, for example, when you lend money to the government by buying Treasury Bills, federal bonds, municipal securities, or index funds, the interest you expect to make per year is at most 5%. But the Nigerian government is desperately signaling to these foreign speculators and international bondholders to come drop their dollars in Nigeria, effectively guaranteeing them a massive 27% interest by the end of the year. This might look like a huge economic win as foreign capital flows into the country, but this hot money never ends up in the pockets of ordinary Nigerians. It is never used to build schools, pay hospital bills, subsidize agriculture, fix dead refineries, or reduce house rents. The money just sits idly in the central bank to impress the IMF and World Bank creditors, proving to them that Nigeria is highly liquid and perfectly safe to lend to.
The absolute worst part of this trap is that it is not just the CBN increasing the base interest rates. The commercial banks are naturally forced to aggressively increase their lending rates even higher. Today, some predatory commercial banks are charging desperate businesses as much as 35% to 40% interest on loans. This financial terrorism has forced countless local businesses to drastically cut down production, lay off massive numbers of staff, and permanently close their branches in remote areas across Nigeria, forcing them to operate strictly within the suffocating limits of their own personal, depleted capital. It is practically mathematically impossible to borrow from a Nigerian bank, scale up production, create actual wealth, and employ the millions of struggling graduates in our society when you first have to pay 40% to the bank. Add that to the reunified currency making imports insanely expensive, meaning businesses still have to pay extra for imported raw materials, clear goods at exorbitant customs duties, pay multiple state taxes, and buy the hyper-expensive fuel that spiked in price due to the celebrated subsidy removal.
It is very possible to analyze this insulting press release further, but there is absolutely no need to waste the time. Clearly, this administration should not be celebrating warm handshakes, pat-on-the-back press releases, and polite diplomatic smiles from foreign creditors and international bondholders. They should be focusing entirely on the bleeding Nigerians who are brutally forced to carry the crushing, suffocating burden of these massive economic miscalculations just to please a comfortable, wealthy board of directors at the World Bank and the IMF.
I hate to admit this, but I completely agree with the IMF on this one.
I know that this may sound heavily counterintuitive. In all my political analysis on this platform, I have consistently pointed out that the IMF and the World Bank do not give out loans to genuinely help developing countries. They lend strictly to control the economies of developing nations, force privatization, and forcefully open local markets for the massive global multinationals financing these exact institutions.
However, I have done my deep research on this highly secretive Abu Dhabi loan scheme that the Nigerian government is presently considering, and what I found is deeply troubling and borderline treasonous.
First, it is crucially important to emphasize that this is the first time Nigeria, in all its long, painful history of borrowing to build infrastructure, is ever seriously considering a Total Return Swap (TRS) loan.
Historically, Nigeria has always restricted its sovereign borrowing to Eurobonds, bilateral government-to-government loans(with China), Paris Club concessional debt, standard World Bank infrastructure facilities, or traditional commercial syndicated loans.
Not only has Nigeria never tried a Total Return Swap loan in the past, but other African nations have actively, aggressively avoided this financial death trap entirely. In fact, the only two African nations to have even foolishly attempted to engage in a Total Return Swap loan are Senegal and Angola, and in both tragic cases, the macroeconomic aftershocks have been devastatingly brutal.
First, I see Nigerians making the erroneous and highly emotional argument that the IMF is strictly against this loan simply because they do not want us borrowing from China or the Middle East. This is a massive because the toxic TRS loan that Angola eventually took was actually structured through an American bank, JPMorgan, and the IMF still criticized it heavily, publicly, and relentlessly. Secondly, even though the bank Nigeria currently intends to borrow this money from may proudly bear an Arabic name, the underlying operational and structural plumbing of global finance rigidly dictates that it is absolutely impossible for the UAE to directly lend billions of dollars to Nigeria without the direct involvement, backend infrastructure, dollar liquidity, and clearing systems of major American banks. So Wall Street still gets to comfortably eat from this toxic loan, even though it is geographically originating from the Middle East.
Secondly, it is incredibly easy to understand why the Tinubu Administration is pushing so aggressively to lock in this loan. Recall that a strong rumor was circulating last month that the World Bank had permanently terminated an $800 million loan to the Nigerian government. Well, the truth is that it was actually the Tinubu Administration that urgently requested the World Bank terminate the loan because the harsh conditions were simply too much to swallow politically. The World Bank arrogantly demanded that Tinubu impose even more taxes on electricity and hike tariffs which would effectively raise the suffocating cost of survival for Nigerian businesses, which Tinubu respectfully declined because the tax burden was already provoking mass anger.
So right now, it is highly probable that Tinubu is quietly running to Abu Dhabi to collect a massive, strings-free loan that will definitely not come with painful Structural Adjustment Programmes that would force him to devalue the Naira further, remove more subsidies, or hit Nigerians with heavier, crippling taxes.
This is highly understandable from a purely selfish political calculus. General elections are exactly seven short months away, and the frustrated, hungry, and exhausted Nigerian population could violently rebel against him at the ballot box. So obviously, another punishing World Bank loan is completely off the table for now if the President intends to comfortably return to Aso Rock come 2027.
This is exactly why they have desperately chosen this Total Return Swap loan. This is because Abu Dhabi does not care a single bit about the junk credit ratings of Nigeria, they do not care about structural adjustment programmes, they will not demand Nigeria cuts funding for healthcare, slashes education budgets, eliminates remaining agricultural subsidies, privatizes critical national assets, or forces mass layoffs in the civil service just to qualify for this cash. However, this loan comes with a very strict, highly predatory condition that every single Nigerian should be deeply concerned about, violently reject, and aggressively demand the government immediately withdraw their application for.
First, to even qualify for this $5 billion loan, the Nigerian government must physically hand over sovereign government bonds worth over 133% of this loan, which translates to a staggering β¦6.6 Trillion, directly to the UAE. These Treasury Bills are binding debts that the Nigerian government has legally promised to pay out to creditors, and Abu Dhabi will instantly sell off these bills to the international market to secure their β¦6.6 trillion. These new global buyers will effectively be holding Nigeria's sovereign debt hostage. These private, faceless investors will eventually turn to the Central Bank of Nigeria and violently demand to be paid the interest (coupons) and the massive face value of those bonds. The Nigerian government is now legally, permanently obligated to pay out β¦6.6 trillion of our bleeding taxpayers' money to these aggressive private bondholders.
This is not even the scariest part of this suicidal deal. Another strict, unforgiving obligation of this toxic loan is the terrifying "Margin Call." You see, since these Treasury Bills are heavily priced in Naira, their global value will violently fluctuate depending on how our fragile exchange rate changes. If the Strait of Hormuz is permanently reopened, for example, the global price of oil per barrel will drastically plummet below the $100 mark. This will definitely, immediately impact our Naira value since it will rapidly dry up the vital US dollars flowing into Nigeria, given that 90% of our foreign reserves are entirely dependent on crude oil exports. This means significantly fewer dollars will now be coming into the country, which will trigger massive dollar scarcity. Basic, elementary economics dictates that we should automatically expect the Naira to violently crash to β¦1,600, β¦1,800, or even β¦2,000 per dollar. If this nightmare happens, let us assume the Naira falls by 40%. Then the underlying value of the Nigerian treasury bills issued to the UAE would effectively crash in value by 40 percent. In response, they will instantly issue an aggressive margin call to Nigeria, legally forcing the CBN to immediately, unconditionally transfer $2.6 billion in raw cash directly to the UAE just to keep the loan position open.
Now, pay attention: this massive amount does not even settle the outstanding principal loan, it does not settle the mounting interest on the loan, it is simply a punitive penalty fee that Nigeria must bleed out just to keep the contract active. Nigeria would either have to raid our already depleted foreign reserves (which are supposed to be strictly used to defend the Naira, pay for imports, and secure national stability) just to keep a useless loan position open. If Nigeria does not want to send scarce dollars to the UAE, Nigeria would be contractually forced to issue and blindly pledge an additional β¦2.64 trillion in brand new Treasury bills. Instead of having β¦6.6 trillion in national debt held hostage by a foreign bank, Nigeria would suddenly have β¦9.24 trillion totally locked up. If Nigeria eventually defaults, the amount of national debt the UAE bank can maliciously dump onto the fragile local market violently increases from β¦6.6 trillion to over β¦9.2 trillion, and this would absolutely, mathematically guarantee a total domestic financial collapse.
Look at the tragic case of Angola, for example. Just four very short months after collecting this exact type of toxic loan from JPMorgan, their local currency violently crashed, legally forcing Angola to urgently scrape together and send $200 million in raw cash directly to the American bank, and despite this massive financial bleeding, they eventually defaulted on the entire loan anyway.
This is exactly what every Nigerian desperately needs to understand. Tinubu is not actively avoiding the IMF and the World Bank because his administration has suddenly decided to act sovereign, stand tall, and look for a genuinely better, more respectful lender. This administration is directly, purely avoiding the World Bank because their specific loan will come with heavier taxes, painful structural reforms, and massive public backlash since a highly contested election is dangerously close. But now, this desperate administration is blindly grabbing onto a far more dangerous, explosive, and financially lethal loan that has the direct capacity to cripple our entire economy, destroy our currency, and bankrupt our future faster than the World Bank or IMF could ever possibly dream of.
The society of Nigerian accountants needs to urgently study the complex terms of this toxic loan, hold emergency press conferences, and issue a strongly worded statement to condemn it in its strongest possible terms. The lawyers need to immediately download these predatory loan agreements, study the fine print, dissect the hidden clauses, expose the draconian arbitration terms, file urgent injunctions in federal courts, drag the Finance Minister to the National Assembly, and forcefully petition international financial watchdogs. We, as an exhausted people, need to finally wake up, get angry, and do something concrete, as this is a catastrophic decision that will violently affect our daily lives, our businesses, and our children. Yes, an election is coming, but the election is not tomorrow, the election is not next month, the election is in exactly 7 months, and by then, this financial death warrant would be permanently signed, sealed, and firmly delivered. The House of Assembly will obviously, spinelessly approve these loans without reading a single page because their privileged children, their wealthy families, and their unborn grandchildren will obviously never be affected by the brutal terms of this financial slavery. But we, the ordinary, hardworking, and highly taxed Nigerians, will be the ones totally crushed to the absolute ground when this house of cards inevitably crashes.
N50m was reportedly spent on the Construction of The Magistrate Court and High Court at Erho, Abraka, Delta state in the 2024 Delta state Budget Implementation Report.
We visited this facility and saw that nothing was done. No new construction or renovation of the existing facility.
We met with the court officials from both courts and they asserted that they have not heard of the project and nothing of such was done.
The magistrate also told us that the current benches at the court were provided by the community.
The roofs of some parts of the court are pulling off and the entire compound has been overgrown by bushes.
We call on the office of Gov @RtHonSheriff, @officialEFCC, and the @icpcnigeria to look into this discrepancy and provide the public with details of this project.
@OFASword@UnkleAyo@officialABAT And the capital poverty of the world. 4th on the terrorist list. Oya find something to use biast apart from our human resources wey dem dey ship out every day