By Lovings Yakubu
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| President Buhari of Nigeria |
All may now be set for the re-presentation on the floor of the Nigeria Senate the proposal seeking to borrow about $30 billion under the 2016 – 2018 external Borrowing plan, a source close to the Presidency informed this magazine today.
According to our source, the earlier rejection of the request by the Senate was on technical ground because there was no attachment of detail borrowing plan as indicated in the President Buhari’s letter to the Senate.
“The needed information is ready now and the request would be re-presented to the Senate for approval. It’s unfortunate that there is a misconception about the whole issue as lot of people have been misinformed by some mischief makers on the position of the Senate on its rejection of the request few days ago. The action of the Senate suggests that the appropriate thing be done and not that the Senate would not approve the request because it is part of the 2016 budget implementation.
We have collected the necessary information from the appropriate establishments and we are set for re-presentation” said our source.
It would be recalled that President Buhari’s request for the approval of the National Assembly of about $30 billion suffered a setback last week following a rejection by the upper chamber of the National Assembly. According to the FG, the loan, if approved, will take care of many areas including, Health, Water Resources, Education, Roads, Railway among other projects.
The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has already thrown its weight in support of President Buhari’s decision to take external loan to take care of infrastructures but added that the exercise must not be shrouded in secrecy but transparent. According to Ayuba Wabora NLC President, who spoke to the Nation Newspaper on the issue, “All over the world, critical infrastructures are needed. In the case of Nigeria, one critical infrastructure that will drive development is power. Once we don’t get stable power supply to industries, motivate small and medium scale, we cannot actually arrive.”
The NLC President’s position seemed to be corroborated by that of Comrade Steve Aluko of the Civil Liberty Organization. Speaking as a guest to Unity Fm Jos recently on the issue, Comrade Aluko said people would have confidence if we have a transparent system adding that the fear of most Nigerians is not about collecting the loan but what would happen in the event of misapplication of the loan taking into account previous experiences.
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| Dollars |
The South- East caucus in the House of Representatives last week also decried exclusion of the Zone in projects to be funded from the FG proposed loan. In the light of the above, the lawmakers said that though, they were not against the loan proposal; they will only give their support to it if projects to be funded by the loan were spread across all geo-political zones in the Country.
However, in his reaction, Paul Takaya, a financial Expert and social commentator urged the Senate not to approve the request as Buhari led administration, according to him, cannot be trusted. He alleged that this administration is the most corrupt since Independence adding that the War against corruption going on is being fought by President Buhari alone while other members of his cabinet are only paying lips service to the crusade. He added that Buhari’s intention may be genuine but those around him who will be saddled with the responsibility of appropriating the loan cannot be trusted.
In his contribution, Isaac Wadak, retired Permanent Secretary Ministry of Finance Plateau State, Nigeria, and a financial consultant said the request for the loan was in order because it is in line with the funding of the 2 trillion naira deficit of the six trillion Naira 2016 budget already approved by the National Assembly.
According to him, “the President announced three steps on how the 2016 budget would be funded to include revenue collections, cuts from overhead spending which amounted to slightly over four trillion naira while the almost two trillion is to be funded by domestic and foreign loans of 900 billion naira and 1 trillion naira respectively”
Mr. Wadak added that what should draw the attention of the National Assembly and all concerned Nigerians is the amount the FG intends to borrow whether it is in conformity with the 2016 budget already signed into law most especially on the aspect involving foreign loans.
Also contributing, Chief Osundu Ikenna, a business consultant in Jos said that he too is not against borrowing but his main concerned was that it is not economic wisdom for a country to borrow above its Foreign Reserves. According to him, Nigeria’s Foreign Reserve is less than $10 billion ( about 2.5 trillion naira) but wondered why the FG has decided to borrow $30 billion (which is about 7 trillion naira) an amount that is three times our Foreign Reserves adding that if the loan is eventually taken, will destroy the economy.
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