OPINION -Tinubu: Borrowing Is Leprosy
TUESDAY FLAT OUT OPINION -Tinubu: Borrowing Is Leprosy By Suyi Ayodele (Published in the Nigerian Tribune on Tuesday, May 5, 2026) https://tribuneonlineng.com/tinubu-borrowing-is-leprosy/ “Neither a borrower nor a lender be; For loan oft loses both itself and friend, And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry.” William Shakespeare, Hamlet (Act 1, Scene 3) Nigeria has shifted from incurring debt as an instrument of policy to embracing it as a condition of survival. It is a dangerous evolution—made worse when President Bola Ahmed Tinubu appears to regard debt not as leprosy, but as ornament. Greek philosopher, Plutarch (before AD50-after 120), wrote a piece titled: “That We Ought Not to Borrow.” What the old Greek philosopher said in the piece, published in Vol. X of the Loeb Classical Library edition of the Moralia, 1936 (Pg. 315-339), shows that borrowing is worse than leprosy in all ramifications. Plutarch’s piece summarises the Greeks...