Political activist Deji Adeyanju has questioned the federal government's decision to borrow $2.2 billion to finance the budget deficit when it claims to have saved $20 billion through the removal of the petrol subsidy and the adoption of market-based foreign exchange pricing.

Adeyanju criticized the federal government's decision during the latest episode of the Honest Bunch podcast on Monday, December 2.

He addressed issues such as Nigeria's governance structure, the independence of the electoral institution, and the systemic failures that have led to the decline in the country's economic fortunes in the no-holds-barred interview.

"The system is programmed in such a way that it is bad people that win. No matter how hard you fight. He talked about appointed people. How can you have a nation where this government said they've saved 20 billion naira from subsidy? Yes. But they are going to borrow two billion," he asked.

"If you have saved 20 billion from subsidy removal after all, the money is not with Akpabio nor is it with Bola Tinubu, the money must be somewhere, let us borrow from it and stop embarrassing the country by going to borrow externally."

The National Assembly approved the proposal by President Bola Tinubu to borrow $2.21 billion from foreign investors to plug a shortfall in this year’s budget.

The government plans to use the funds to partly finance an expected deficit of 9.18 trillion naira ($5.46 billion) for this year, Tinubu said in a letter of request sent to lawmakers earlier this week.

The external borrowing will be split between $1.7 billion in Eurobonds and $500 million in sukuk, according to Finance Minister Wale Edun.