After a heated debate and a closed- door session that lasted 45 minutes, lawmakers in the Senate have approved President Buhari’s $22.7 billion loan request to fund key infrastructural projects, four years after it was rejected by the Saraki-led eight Senate.
The loan request was given a green-light after the report of the Senate committee on Local and Foreign debts was read and recommended for approval by its chairman, Clifford Ordia (PDP, Edo). But some lawmakers got into an argument with the Senate President who wanted the report to be considered as a whole and senators would engage in voice vote while some lawmakers wanted each content of the report to be scrutinised before putting it to vote.
Leading the call for detailed scrutiny of the report so that lawmakers would have full information was Senators Abdullahi Yahaya and Enyinnaya Abaribe, the majority and minority leaders respectively.
With states such as Katsina, Kaduna, Kogi and the FCT benefitting from the loan, Adamu Aliero questioned why some parts of the country were excluded from the capital projects to be executed with the loan.
“The East-West road is a very good project and I support fully the inclusion of this project in the borrowing plan. If you look at other parts of the country, nothing is said about North East.
“The application of this loan is lopsided, and I want to say that other geo-political zones should be considered. We have dilapidated roads all over the country. I don’t see why huge amount of money like this will be concentrated in only one section of the country. When we come to the clause, we should include critical parts that should be covered by this loan,” he said.
But Senate President Lawan disagreed with including areas not covered by the request.
‘If we notice any lopsidedness, I think it may not be for this Senate to just include the projects but it is important that the executive takes note of these areas that were left out and in the next phase we consider those areas that are left out,” he argued.
When arguments persisted, the majority leader moved that the house withdraws to a closed-door session to discuss the issue.
After 45 minutes, the house resumed and approved the recommendations of the committee.
The 2016 – 2018 Medium Term External Borrowing (Rolling) plan to the tune of $22.7 billion was approved.
The following agencies will participate in the funding:
World Bank – $ 2,854,000,000
African Development Bank – $1,888,950,000
Islamic Development Bank – $110,000,000
Japan International Cooperation Agency – $200,000,000
German Development Bank $200,000,000
China Exim Bank – $17,065,496.773
French Development Agency – $480,000,000
The request was resent to the Senate in November 2019, saying that it would help fund the capital project component of the 2020 budget, four years after it was rejected by the Saraki-led eight Senate in 2016. The President had requested $30 billion but it was rejected by the majority. There was power tussle between former Senate President Saraki and President Buhari.
The chairman of the eight senate committee on local and foreign debt, Shehu Sani, said the loan request was rejected in 2016 to prevent the country from sinking in debt.
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