Senate Rejects Buhari’s $30bn Loan Request

The Nigerian Senate, on Tuesday, threw out the request by President Muhammadu Buhari to borrow about $30bn as 2016 – 2018 External Borrowing Rolling Plan.

Recall that last week, Buhari wrote the upper chamber, seeking its approval to borrow the sum from the World Bank.

The borrowing plan was to address the infrastructure deficit in the health, education, water resources and other sectors.

The president’s plans to borrow the sum was rejected by Nigerians, as many, including human rights activists said the proposed borrowing was not needed at such a time.

Their desire has however been met as the Senate overwhelmingly voted against Buhari’s request after it was subjected to a voice vote.

The Whistler learnt that the rejection of the president’s borrowing plan is that there was no attachment of the draft of the borrowing plan to help Senators decide if to support the plan.

Secondly, in the last paragraph of the same letter, the President wants the Senate to approve the borrowing plan pending when the details of the plan would be ready, a decision frowned at by the lawmakers, wondering why they will be attending to a non-existent borrowing plan in the first place.