Mahdi Shehu Slams Nigerian Governments Over ‘Toxic’ JICA Power Loans

Political analyst Mahdi Shehu has taken aim at successive Nigerian administrations for what he termed the reckless accumulation of loans from the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) to fund the power sector.

In a post shared on X, Shehu labeled the loans as “toxic monies” that will haunt the country in the future. He recalled that in 2022, under late President Muhammadu Buhari, Nigeria obtained a $200 million loan from JICA, intended for improving power transmission, with repayment scheduled to begin in November 2025.

Despite this existing debt, President Bola Tinubu’s administration has now secured an additional $238 million loan from the same agency, also for power sector improvement. Shehu criticized this as a superficial change in narrative rather than genuine progress.

He further alleged that over ₦30 trillion allocated to the power sector since 1999 has been mismanaged, embezzled, or misused—leaving Nigerians without reliable electricity. “Governments that squander borrowed funds destroy the nation’s future,” Shehu warned, adding that these funds will ultimately bring “pain, agony, and regret,” predicting a looming “day of shame” even before any final reckoning.