Borrowing Is Not Criminal, We Have Serious Infrastructural Deficit

President Bola Tinubu has justified the frequent borrowings under his administration, insisting that it is not a criminal act.

He stated this during a media chat on Monday night while responding to questions about the projected deficit of ₦13.39tn in the proposed 2025 national budget, which the administration intends to finance through borrowing.

Tinubu argued that the country suffers from serious infrastructural deficit, hence the need to borrow to combat the situation.

According to him, “Borrowing is not criminal. We have been coming from mismatch of our needs. We have a serious infrastructural deficit.

“If you took huge money and match it on the long term project, matching project on the long term basis, where we do have the short term to manage the long term basis is a mismatch.

“Yes, we have headed the wrong road in the past. I don’t want to look at that. I want to think about prosperity for our country.

“What’s the element of these borrowing? Capital projects – our roads are terrible, our internet is not at the level a nation would want it to be, we are still indebted in electricity and efficiency in power generation. We have to take it with our two hands.”