Why Tinubu Wants $20.5bn Borrowed With Nigeria's Election 110 Days Away

President Bola Tinubu asked the National Assembly on Tuesday to approve a fresh external borrowing plan of $20.52 billion and €1.045 billion for projects and programmes across several sectors. Senate President Godswill Akpabio read the request at plenary.

The timing is the story. Nigeria's presidential and National Assembly elections are scheduled for 16 January 2027, with governorship and State Houses of Assembly elections on 6 February 2027. That places the request inside the final 110 days before the general election.

If approved, the loans could push Nigeria's total public debt toward ₦197 trillion. Public debt stood at ₦166.79 trillion as of June 2026. The ₦197 trillion figure is a projection, not a current debt stock.

The request is not an isolated one. In March 2026, the National Assembly approved two external financing facilities totalling $6 billion — a $5 billion programme from First Abu Dhabi Bank in the UAE and a $1 billion UK facility. That same month, Tinubu sought approval for a ₦9 trillion increase to the 2026 budget alongside the $6 billion in external borrowing, with the requests also read by Akpabio.

What the record shows is a pattern: repeated borrowing proposals and approvals under this administration, now arriving in the final stretch before an election. What it does not yet show is approval. The request remains subject to legislative action, and the National Assembly has not voted on it.

Several questions remain open. Will lawmakers approve the full $20.52 billion and €1.045 billion, and on what timeline? Which projects and programmes would the loans fund? What are the terms — interest rates, tenors, and lenders? How would the borrowing affect Nigeria's debt-service burden and the ₦197 trillion projection?

The proximity to the election raises a further question about how lawmakers and the public will treat the request. That the timing invites scrutiny is a fact of the calendar. Whether it reflects a deliberate strategy is not established by the evidence available.

What is clear is that the same legislature that approved $6 billion in external financing earlier this year is now being asked to approve more than three times that amount, with the election countdown already inside 110 days.