By Jude Opara, Abuja
Former vice president and candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the 2019 elections, Atiku Abubakar, has written to the Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, on the need for the National Assembly to reject any new loan requests except those for income-generating projects.
Abubakar in the letter dated August 19, said the federal lawmakers should not continue to watch while the country goes deep into financial crisis occasioned by indiscriminate borrowings.
“Nigeria risks insolvency if it continues to borrow money, adding that previous loans were spent on non-viable projects,” the 2019 presidential hopeful of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) said.
Recall that as of March 2020, Nigeria’s total public debt stands at ₦28.6 trillion ($79.3 billion), of which about ₦10 trillion ($27.6 billion) is external debt, according to the Debt Management Office (DMO).
“On May 29, 2015, Nigeria’s total national debt stood approximately at N12 trillion. As of August 2020, our national debt has tripled to N28.63 trillion,” Abubakar noted.
“Even more alarming is the fact that the foreign debt portion of our national debt has risen from less than $10 billion on May 29, 2015, to almost $30 billion in August 2020,” he added.
“A further cause for concern is the fact that not all of these debts are necessary. A study of the use to which these monies have been put to, show that much of it has gone towards items or projects that are non-productive or viable,” he said.
Both the Senate and the House of Representatives have approved all three loans from President Muhammadu Buhari.
In June the $5.513 billion foreign loan request by the president got legislative nod, a week after another $22.7 billion foreign loan was approved by both Houses.
The approval was preceded by the approval of another ₦850 billion borrowing request made by the president, which is to be sourced from domestic markets.
dailyasset
