Misguided Borrowing, Corruption and Debt Crises: A Case of Factitious Watery Politico-Economic Diarrhoea in Nigeria

This study interrogates Nigeria’s recurring debt criseshighlighting the chronic and wasteful dynamics of borrowing,corruption, and fiscal mismanagement. Like humans riskloosing their lives from passing excess fluids through diarrhoeainfection, bad governance with its attendant economicconsequences have drained the Nigerian State to the point wereher very existential reality is threatened. Nigeria like a humanbeing is experiencing a "factitious watery politico-economicdiarrhoea" and is in dare need of serious attention. Despite debtrelief in 2005 and multiple reform attempts, Nigeria hasrelapsed into unsustainable borrowing, rising interestrepayments, and widening fiscal deficits. Drawing on aqualitative historical-institutional analysis, the papertriangulates data from the World Bank, IMF, Central Bank ofNigeria, and the Debt Management Office with politicaleconomy scholarship. Findings reveal that misguidedborrowing—often directed toward recurrent expenditure,subsidies, and patronage politics—has been exacerbated byentrenched corruption, diversion of loans, and white-elephantprojects. The analysis demonstrates how dependency onexternal finance structurally undermines economic sovereignty,locking Nigeria into cycles of indebtedness rather than fosteringresilience. Comparative insights from Ghana, Zambia, andKenya underscore that Nigeria’s predicament is emblematic ofbroader African debt vulnerabilities. The study concludes thatmeaningful reform requires institutional strengthening in debtmanagement, linking borrowing strictly to productiveinvestments, curbing corruption, diversifying the revenue base,and embedding citizen oversight. These measures are necessarynot only to stabilize Nigeria’s fiscal outlook but also to restoregovernance credibility and democratic accountability.