Former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar has criticised the administration of President Bola Tinubu over the state of the Nigerian economy, accusing the government of pushing local businesses to the brink while foreign investors withdraw their capital.
Atiku’s position was contained in a statement issued on Tuesday by Phrank Shaibu, his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication.
The African Democratic Congress presidential candidate cited data from the Nigerian Exchange showing that foreign investors brought N513.36 billion into the Nigerian equities market between January and July 2026 but withdrew N779.43 billion during the same period.
According to the figures, the development resulted in a net capital outflow of N266.07 billion.
Atiku said foreign outflows exceeded inflows in every month during the period, adding that the net outflow was about 11.7 times higher than the N22.68 billion recorded during the corresponding period of 2023.
“This is not merely an investment statistic. It is a confidence verdict on the Tinubu economy,” the statement reads.
The former vice-president also pointed to increased domestic borrowing by the Federal Government, which he said rose by 90.5 per cent to N24.7 trillion within eight months.
He further claimed that credit to the government had grown more than four times faster than credit available to the private sector.
“So, the picture is now painfully clear: Tinubu’s government is crowding Nigerian businesses out of the domestic credit market while foreign investors are taking their money and heading for the exit,” he said.
“Local businesses are suffocating. Foreign capital is fleeing. Government borrowing is exploding. Food prices has skyrocketed. Transportation costs are crushing families.”
Atiku accused the Tinubu administration of celebrating its economic reforms despite what he described as worsening economic hardship across the country.
“Yet, with Nigerians crushed under the weight of its disastrous policies, the Tinubu administration still has the audacity to celebrate itself for presiding over an economic catastrophe of its own making,” he said.
He argued that Nigeria’s economy could not be said to be recovering when entrepreneurs could not access affordable credit, manufacturers were struggling with operating costs, households were becoming poorer and investors were unwilling to keep their funds in the country.
According to Atiku, investors were assessing Nigeria based on factors including policy consistency, inflation, purchasing power, regulatory predictability and the prospect of earning sustainable returns, rather than government speeches and headline economic figures.
“And their verdict is increasingly unmistakable: take the money and run,” he said.
The ADC presidential candidate called for economic policies aimed at restoring investor confidence, reducing the cost of doing business, making energy and transportation more affordable and encouraging domestic production.
He said the private sector should be the main driver of economic growth instead of increased government borrowing.
“That is the fundamental difference between Tinubu’s economics of government consumption and Atiku’s economics of private-sector production and household affordability,” he said.
“You cannot borrow the private sector dry, impoverish consumers and then advertise yourself to the world as an investment destination. The investors are already answering the propaganda. They are leaving.”
