• Nigeria Is Now On The International Auction Market, Says PDP
Following a letter by President Muhammadu Buhari to the National Assembly seeking approval to take a fresh loan of $5.513bn, Nigeria’s opposition party, the Peoples Democratic Party has cried out saying the president is placing Nigeria in an international auction market.
The party, in a statement issued by its National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan argued that the president’s proposal to take a fresh loan in addition to an earlier $22.79 billion (N8.5trillion), will compromise the fiscal integrity of the nation.
PDP also maintained that incessant borrowing by President Buhari-led administration will expose Nigerians to the risk of modern-day slavery by mortgaging our future to economic appropriation by foreign interests’.
“We are alarmed that with the volume of foreign loans being accumulated by President Buhari and his All Progressives Congress, APC this nation and her people have been placed on the international auction market.
His moves to take a fresh $5.513 billion (N2.1 trillion) loan in addition to an earlier $22.79 billion (N8.5trillion), the size of 2020 budget, without operable repayment plans, will totally compromise the fiscal integrity of our nation and open her up for economic annexation by foreign creditors. This is in addition to N850 billion from the capital market.
It is more alarming that the Buhari led government, in this fiscal year, cannot muster the capacity to harness the huge resources available in our country to generate even half of the sum of its own budget, but has been going cap in hands to shop for foreign loans.
The PDP expressed fears that with this situation this administration is practically driving our nation to the brinks while exposing Nigerians to the risk of modern-day slavery by mortgaging our future to economic appropriation by foreign interests” the statement read.
The opposition further said it is distressing that the APC administration cannot account for the loans it has taken, adding that all the loans taking so far have not bettered the lives of Nigerians.
“Already the situation has created apprehensions, anxiety, and trepidation among the citizens, particularly the youths, who are now scared about their future and the survival of our nation under this administration.
It is even more distressing that this administration cannot account for the loans it has taken so far. In spite of the deluge of loans, the lives of the ordinary Nigerians, on whose behalf they claim to be amassing these debts, have become worse than how they met them in 2015.
Painfully, even the savings made by previous administrations have been opened up for pillaging by APC’s leaders and the cabal in the Buhari Presidency” the party lamented.
The party, therefore, called on Nigerians to look beyond primordial differences and unite in speaking against the accumulation of debts. It is no longer about political party affiliations, creed, ethnicity, class, or age.
“We all must unite in one voice to save our nation from imminent collapse,” he said.
Recall that on Thursday, President Buhari sent another external loan request of $5.513bn to the two chambers of the federal parliament.
The Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, and the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, read the letters during plenary, after a closed session with members on Thursday.
Buhari said the loan would be used to finance the proposed 2020 revised budget, some priority projects, and other projects to support state governments.
He said it became imperative for the funding of the revised 2020 budget and insulating the nation’s economy from the yet-to-be-abated COVID-19 pandemic.
The sources for the loans, according to him, are the International Monetary Fund, $3.4bn; World Bank, $1.4bn; Africa Development Bank, $500m; Islamic Development Bank, $113m, among others.
The letter read, “As the Senate may be aware, the COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in economic and fiscal challenges for many countries.
Nigeria has also been affected in this regard, especially with the lower demand for crude oil, which has affected our sales and the sharp decline in the price of oil below $25 per barrel, which is much lower than the $57 per barrel benchmark in the 2020 Appropriation Act.
The COVID-19 pandemic has also created the need for additional expenditure in the health sector.
All of these have necessitated a review of the 2020 Budget and the Medium-Term Expenditure Framework (2020-2022).
The draft revised budget proposed by the executive for 2020 has a higher deficit. In order to finance the deficit, the Federal Government is planning to raise funds from both domestic and external sources.
For the external component, the government is negotiating with multilateral institutions for funding on concessionary terms.
The facilities totalling $5.513bn, being arranged in this regard, are detailed below.”
However, details of the projects were not made available, but both chambers of the National Assembly had referred the documents to their committees on local and foreign debts.
The committees are expected to submit their reports on Tuesday next week.
