On July 22, 2025, the Nigerian Senate approved an additional $21 billion, €2.2 billion, ¥15 billion of external borrowing for the 2025–2026 fiscal cycle. It also approved a N750.98 billion domestic bond issuance and a €65 65million grant. With an already existing public debt of about N149.39 trillion as at the first quarter of 2025, adding the approved loans of about N37.2 trillion) brings our current total debt to about N187 trillion with concerns that our debt might likely be over N200 trillion by the end of 2025. As our GDP before rebasing was about N269.2 trillion (about $180 billion), the government has borrowed the equivalent of nearly 70% of our previous GDP. Even after the rebasing, which pushed our GDP to about N372.8 trillion (about $243. 7billion), the government would have borrowed about 50.16 % of the new GDP (with the approved loans), the highest debt-to-GDP ratio in our history as a nation. While the year-on-year increase is about N27.72 trillion and the quarter-on-quarter increase is about N4.72 trillion, we are accumulating very exponential levels of unsustainable debt with little or nothing to show for it in critical areas such as education, healthcare, electricity generation, security of lives and property, and pulling people out of poverty. We still rank low in all major human development indicators. While education is underfunded and standard in continuous decline, healthcare remains inaccessible to millions of Nigerians particularly the poor. Security of lives and property has deteriorated with over 10,217 people killed and 672 villages sacked between May 29th 2023, and May 29th 2025, even when security spending has significantly increased from N2.98 trillion in 2023 to N4.91 trillion in 2025. Infrastructure decay persists across the country, with about 135,000km of our 195,000km of roads remaining unpaved, largely unmotorable, and unusable. It is the same depressing situation in almost all sectors of the economy, with the power sector an unquestionable example, with less than 5,000 MW supplied for over 200 million Nigerians. Today, over two years after the present government took over and with all the humongous borrowing, we are still confronted with negative reports of worsening poverty with about 133 million (63%) Nigerians classified as multi-dimensionally poor, increasing unemployment and disheartening news like 652 children dead as the malnutrition crisis worsens in Northern Nigeria. Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), also known as Doctors Without Borders, has just sounded the alarm over an escalating malnutrition crisis in Northern Nigeria, with Katsina State emerging as one of the worst-hit areas. This is a country blessed with enormous resources, yet nobody should go to bed hungry. Still, a persistent deficiency in leadership has thrown the majority of our citizens into increasing multi-dimensional poverty. Borrowing is not inherently bad if it is sustainable and tied to productive investments with measurable outcomes. Unfortunately, this current pattern of borrowing without accountability, without transparency, and without transformational impact is simply mortgaging the future of our children. The government should consider the inter-generational consequences of their unsustainable borrowings and show at least a minimum consideration and interest in future of young and unborn Nigerians. We must return to a disciplined and prudent economic management culture, cutting the cost of governance, blocking leakages, investing in human capital, and building a productive economy. Nigeria cannot continue to borrow recklessly while poverty deepens and public trust erodes. It is time to stop this fiscal indiscipline. We must build a New Nigeria, where leadership is responsible, development is people-centred, and every kobo borrowed or spent delivers a measurable impact to achieve sustainable and inclusive development and growth. A new Nigeria is POssible. -PO

In November 2022, while campaigning in Delta State, the then APC Presidential Candidate, Bola Tinubu, now the President, berated the other Presidential Candidate (Peter Obi), he was ashamed to call his name, saying "Na statistics we go chop all I want is to put food on the table of Nigerians”. Now 2 years into his 4-year tenure, Nigeria is classified as one of the hungriest nations in the world with millions of Nigerians not knowing where their next meal will come from. President Tinubu is now overfeeding Nigerians with wrong Statistics from wrong unemployment figures, wrong inflation figures, and now GDP rebasing, all to put a positive spin on our deteriorating economic and household conditions. Governance is not a rocket science, it's not a gamble, like I have always reiterated, it requires sincerity of purpose, character, competence, capacity and compassion. A new Nigeria is POssible. -PO

The deaths in our country continue unabated, as one reads the heartbreaking stories that have become our daily reality. With the brutal killings of over 100 people in Zamfara, including our revered military men, Mr. President, it is time to accept the inevitable truth and act decisively. Nigeria is at war. We can no longer afford the dangerous denial. The number of lives lost in Nigeria now mirrors countries at war, and the death in our own country even happens more often than in countries at war. We cannot continue like this. It is time to prioritise the security of lives over infrastructure projects. Governance must now become about saving lives, not cutting ribbons and headlining ceremonies on front pages. Every child buried, every soldier slain, every Nigerian abducted, is a loud cry that leadership must hear. The true measure of leadership is not in the number of roads built or bridges commissioned, but in how many lives are preserved, how many families sleep in peace, and how many communities thrive without fear of bandits. This is no longer about politics, it is about the survival of Nigerians. The soul of our nation is bleeding, and only true leadership can save our dear country. A new Nigeria is POssible. -PO

What has happened to our compassion as a People ? We pleaded that the President should show Leadership and visit Benue and Niger States in the spirit of deep national mourning, to offer compassion and solidarity to families torn apart by the senseless massacre of over 200 innocent Nigerians in Benue State and flooding that killed similar number in Niger State. But what we saw in Benue visit was instead of a solemn, reflective visit, a display that would have been more befitting for the commissioning of reconstructed Enugu-Makurdi highway, a critical road connecting South and Northern Nigeria which had become impassable for years. The President arrived not in mourning cloth but in celebratory agbada attire, like it was an occasion for joy. Even more heartbreaking is the role of the State. Rather than been in mourning mood and weeping declared a public holiday, not for reflection or prayer, but to organize fanfare. Schools were shut down. Children who should be mourning their slaughtered classmates, and parents were instead lined up under the rain, rehearsed to sing and dance for the President. In what kind of country does this happen? We have tragically arrived at a point where condolence visits have become carnivals. A time that should be marked by silence and solemnity is now polluted by banners, music, and rehearsed spectacles. Precious Nigerian lives have been lost, yet we’re clapping, singing, and organizing processions, as though this were a campaign rally. This is not how any compassionate nation behaves. The energy, resources, and logistics poured into this charade could have gone into food supplies, temporary shelters, medical aid, school support, and trauma counselling for grieving families. Instead, we chose optics over empathy. Look elsewhere: When President Ramaphosa visited Mthatha after the floods in South Africa, there were no drums. No staged crowds. No rented cheers. Just presence, silence, and action. When Prime Minister Modi went to the site of a crash, no one lined up to welcome him. He came, he mourned, he acted. That is what leadership looks like in moments of pain. We must ask ourselves: What kind of people have we become? Enough of this culture of impunity. We are not at war yet our nation is bleeding, and we are clapping. It is not only insensitive, it is dangerous. Let us not forget: These were human beings, children, mothers, fathers whose blood cries out for justice. When very sad incidents like this turns to campaign or festival, our Nation Losing Its Soul. A new Nigeria is POssible! -PO