Buhari’s Fresh Loan Request: We May Become Tenants In Our Country, Senator Warns

Former Kaduna Central Senator, Shehu Sani, has expressed worry at the rate at which Nigeria was incurring foreign debts under the Muhammadu Buhari administration.

Sani, who was the chairman of the committee on local and foreign debts in the 8th Senate, was reacting to President Buhari’s fresh request to the 9th Senate for approval of federal government’s 2016-2018 borrowing plan.

The same request by the president had been rejected by the 8th senate after senators voted overwhelmingly against it.  The president had sought the 8th senate’s approval to borrow $29.96 billion from external sources in 2016.

THE WHISTLER reported how Buhari, in a letter he wrote the 9th senate on Tuesday, blamed the 8th senate for stalling the federal government’s implementation of critical projects in the mining, power, health, agricultural, water and educational sectors.

But peaking in a statement on Friday, Sani defender the 8^th lawmakers’ decision, saying the senators did Nigeria a favour by rejecting the loan request.

He said the move saved the country from being “recolonised by creditor banks,” adding that the country’s foreign debt would have hit $52 billion if the 8^th senate had approved Buhari’s request.

Sani said, “We turned down the FG loan request for $30 Billion to save Nigeria from sinking into the dark gully of a perpetual debt trap,” he said.

“We don’t want our country to be recolonized by creditor banks.”

Sani noted that country’s external debt as of June 2019 stands at $22.08 billion from $10.32 billion in 2015.

“With the current escalation of borrowing, we will be walking into debt slavery and move from landlords to tenants in our country,” he said.

“They will always tell you that even America is borrowing and I don’t know how rational is it to keep on borrowing because Another country is borrowing.

“If we keep listening to Bankers and contractors we will keep borrowing and burying ourselves and leave behind for our children a legacy of debt burden.

“Loans are not charities. Most of those encouraging more borrowing are parasitic consultants, commission agents, rents seeking fronts and contractors. We must be cautious,” he said.