Four federal projects, funded with nearly $857 million in external loans, are sitting unfinished across the country. Roads left unpaved, programmes stalled mid-execution, infrastructure that borrowed money built halfway and then stopped. That is the reality casting a long shadow over President Bola Tinubu's latest move to borrow an additional $21.7 billion from external sources.
The concern is not simply about the size of the new borrowing plan. It is about what Nigerians have watched happen before. When nearly a billion dollars in loan-backed commitments can produce abandoned projects, the appetite for another round of external debt is a harder sell to a public that has seen the cycle repeat itself.
Details on which specific projects account for the $857 million remain important context here. What the figures confirm is that accountability for previous loan-funded infrastructure has been incomplete, and that gap matters enormously as the government seeks fresh credit on an even larger scale.
For many Nigerians already feeling the squeeze of fuel subsidy removal and currency pressures, the borrowing conversation is deeply personal. Debt servicing costs real money, and real money is already tight. The question that hangs in the air is not whether Nigeria needs investment in infrastructure. It is whether the structures in place can guarantee that $21.7 billion does not simply become tomorrow's cautionary headline.
Originally published by BusinessDay.