Atiku Writes Senate President, Urges National Assembly to Reject Fresh Loan Requests From Buhari

Former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar has urged members of the National Assembly to reject fresh loan requests from President Muhammadu Buhari administration.

Atiku in a letter addressed to the President of the Senate, Ahmed Lawan, dated August 25,2020, said the future of Nigeria’s youth and unborn generation had been thrown into a bondage-like condition due to financial recklessness of the Buhari administration.

The letter reads, “I am writing to you and your colleagues on an issue that is urgent and important as regards to our national security without mincing words, the nation is in danger of entering a debt crises. That is if we are not already in one.

“On May 29 2015 Nigerian’s total national debt stood at approximately 12 trillion as at August 2020 our nattonal debt has tripled to N28.63 trillion. Even more alarmmg 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.

“A further cause for concen is the fact that not all of these debts are necessary. A study of the use to which these monies have been put to will show that much of it has gone towards items or projects that are non productive or viable.

“Another issue arising are the terms and conditions of the loans which may if care is not taken put Nigerian in the same situation as nations which have lost some of their independence due to their inability to service or repay their debts.

“It is prudent that I do not go into too much detail in order that panic does not set in amongst the citizenry and the economy. However, I am aware that Distinguished Senators have been appraised of the full detail of these troubling facts and that in public and in private many of our patrotic Parlamentarians have shared these same concerns I have raised here.

“What should be done? We must do something. We cannot watch askance while our nation teeters towards financial peril and the future of our youths, as well as generations yet unborn, have been placed in what could very well be bondage-like conditions. We must take decisive action.

“As such, in view of your role as a check on the excesses of other arms of government, may I suggest that going forward, the National Assembly should refuse to approve any new loan requests, where such loans are to be spent on projects or items that are not income generating or production based or indeed viable.

“For the avoidance of doubt, in the business world, a project is deemed viable when the economic benefits of that project outweighs its cost. Looking at some of the projects and items that our current indebtedness has been spent on, on a line-by-line item much of them are unviable.

“The more Nigeria continues to go into debt to fund consumption and unviable projects, the more we risk insolvency.”