Former presidential spokesman and journalist, Reuben Abati, on Tuesday dismissed remarks by former Kogi West Senator, Dino Melaye, that President Bola Tinubu’s administration may start taking loans from Nigeria’s leading Fintech companies, Opay and Moniepoint.
Abati said loans from Opay and Moniepoint are not the kind of money the Tinubu administration needs.
Melaye had accused Tinubu’s administration of recklessness while faulting the President’s claim that the country had met its revenue projections for 2025.
However, Abati, while speaking on Arise Television’s Morning Show, said: “Dino Melaye is a chieftain of the ADC, an opposition party, so you do not expect that he would praise the Tinubu’s administration.
“He is a very articulate and outspoken personality, so he is accusing the president of borrowing. Now let’s look into the details, President Tinubu said, ‘We have met revenue projections and are making a lot of money from non-oil, and we are not borrowing from Nigerian banks’.
“I’m surprised that Melaye is talking about borrowing from MoniePoint and Opay. I don’t think that is the kind of money the Nigerian government will be looking for in terms of capacity.
“The other claim that he made is that Tinubu has a yacht paid for by Nigerian taxpayers, and it’s between Monaco and wherever. That is not true. When this issue of the yacht came up, it wasn’t the Tinubu administration that talked about the yacht; it was Buhari’s administration in the 2023 Supplementary budget.
“At that time, when the controversy came up and people were saying Why a yacht for the President? The Navy came forward and said it was a vessel they used for Naval operations that was named the Presidential yacht and not for President Tinubu, so it’s not something that was purchased for luxury, but you know, in politics, you can bring up anything sensational.”
