Power Debt Crisis: Atiku demands full audit of FG’s N501b bond interventions

By Omeiza Ajayi

ABUJA: Presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress ADC, Atiku Abubakar, has called for a comprehensive public audit of all power sector intervention funds raised by the President Bola Tinubu administration, describing the latest revelations by the Association of Power Generation Companies APGC as the collapse of the government’s narrative on the settlement of power sector debts.

In a statement by his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, the former vice president said Nigerians have been presented with evidence that the Federal Government’s repeated bond issuances have become an endless cycle of borrowing without accountability.

He said the disclosure by the Executive Secretary of the APGC, Dr Joy Ogaji, that the much-publicised ₦501 billion bond has not been fully disbursed, despite repeated government claims to the contrary, raises questions about transparency, fiscal discipline and the credibility of the administration’s economic management.

The statement noted that Ogaji had also challenged the Federal Government to publish the complete list of beneficiaries, the amounts paid to each generation company and the dates of such payments, if indeed the money has been released.

He quoted Ogaji’s description of the government’s token payment as being “like rubbing oil on a crying child’s mouth to imply that he had eaten,” which it said captures the administration’s approach to governance: “grand announcements, impressive figures, glossy headlines, and very little substance.”

According to the statement, Nigerians have for months been “inundated with announcements of bond after bond supposedly floated to clear power sector debts,” beginning with a promise of a ₦590 billion intervention, followed by the ₦501 billion bond “celebrated as a breakthrough,” and later a “multi-trillion-naira settlement programme.”

It said another debt package is now being contemplated while the companies the government claims to have settled insist that the liabilities have continued to grow. “This is no longer a policy failure. It is a crisis of credibility,” the statement read.

Atiku asked why fresh interventions remained necessary if earlier ones had worked, and why creditors were disputing the government’s claim that the debts were substantially cleared.

“If the government has faithfully discharged its obligations, why has the Association of Power Generation Companies publicly challenged the Minister’s claims and demanded documentary evidence? These are not opposition questions. They are industry questions. They deserve government answers,” the statement said.

He called on the Federal Government to immediately accept Ogaji’s challenge by publishing the names of every generation company that received payment, the amount paid to each beneficiary, the dates the payments were made, and the outstanding balances. “Public money cannot disappear into official press statements. Every naira borrowed in the name of Nigerians must be traceable to its destination,” the statement said.

Atiku accused the administration of treating governance as “an endless exercise in announcements,” saying every challenge is met with another ceremony and every unresolved debt answered with another borrowing plan, even as electricity generation remains constrained and Nigerians continue to pay heavily for darkness.

“A government that constantly changes the figures cannot expect citizens to trust its arithmetic,” it said, adding that the administration “must stop moving the goalposts” and cannot ask Nigerians to celebrate fresh debt while refusing to account for previous interventions.

The statement urged the National Assembly, the Auditor-General of the Federation, and other institutions charged with safeguarding public funds to insist on the audit, so Nigerians can know how much has been borrowed, how much has been disbursed, who received the money, and why debts continue to rise despite repeated claims of settlement.

“History will not remember how many bonds this administration floated. It will remember whether those bonds brought light to Nigerian homes or merely deepened the darkness of official opacity”, he stated.

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