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Fred Itua and From Ndubuisi Orji, Abuja
The Senate, yesterday, approved the report by its Committee on Local and Foreign Debts, empowering the federal and state governments to access loans estimated at $22.798, 456, 773 from the World Bank, Islamic Bank, the African Development Bank and Chinese Export and Import (EXIM) Bank.
The approval was reached after a closed door session which lasted about 45 minutes.
President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan, said the loan was approved in the interest of the nation and the economy.
The closed door session was, however, preceded by a battle of wits between Lawan and Senate Minority Leader, Enyinnaya Abaribe.
The two principal officers relied on the Senate Standing Rules to convince their colleagues on the need to make for wholesale approval or item by item of the report by the Senate Committee on Local and Foreign Debts chaired by Ordia Ordia.
Abaribe had accused Lawan of muzzling the opposition as he was repeatedly prevented from seeking to make the Senate buy into item-by-item consideration of the report as against its wholesome approval. He said there were some items in the report that required reconsideration.
The argument by both leaders led to a stalemate which compelled Gabriel Suswam to call for a closed door session for the senate to address grey areas sequel to which the Senate Leader, Abdullahi Yahaya moved a motion for a closed door session.
Meanwhile, Lawan has assured that the National Assembly would take full responsibility for the application of the loan request to the projects domiciled with federal Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs).
He expressed the optimism that the loan would turn around the economic fortunes of the nation, saying its strict application to relevant projects would be supervised by committees of the National Assembly.
However, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), yesterday, berated All Progressives Congress (APC) senators for the approval.
The PDP, in a statement, said the senators have shown that the ruling APC did not have the interest of Nigerians at heart.
“The fact that the $22.7 billion loan request brimmed with unexplained, obscure, over-bloated and questionable subheads, such as the scandalous $500 million dollars (N180 billion) smuggled in under the guise of upgrading the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA), shows that the APC and a cabal in the Presidency are in a huge financial racket, for which they are ready to plunge Nigerians into more suffering.
“In approving the loan, even after it was clear that Nigerians are averse to it, the APC senators have confirmed that they are in league with other APC leaders to fleece our nation and bring more hardship to Nigerians.
“The party notes as disheartening that under the Buhari Presidency our foreign debt has continued to accumulate with nothing to show other than excruciating unemployment rate, decayed infrastructure, a worsening governance system, escalated insecurity and unprecedented poverty.
“The party however, commended the PDP senators for standing with Nigerians in fearlessly rejecting the loan as it will bring more hardship and further mortgage the future of our nation.
“The PDP therefore calls on Nigerians to unite in defence of our nation by raising their voices to demand that Senate reverses this unpatriotic approval, which is completely against our national interest,” the opposition party said.
