Lawyer warns Buhari, 'don't borrow to finance 2016 budget'

dimeji akinloye

February 15, 2016 9:38 PM

He said the government should make frantic efforts to recover debts owed it by different groups and institutions instead of borrowing fresh loan.

Human Rights Activist, Femi Falana

Revered lawyer,

This was contained in a letter the human rights lawyer wrote to the Minister of finance, Kemi Adeosun.

Falana said the government plans to apply for a loan of $2.5 billion from the World Bank and $1 billion from the African Development Bank for the purpose of financing the 2016 Budget, in spite of its debt profile of $64 billion.

READ: Falana petitions EFCC on Abacha's loot

He disclosed that the Federal Government is owed no less than $66.5 billion, stressing that this fund should be recovered as quick as possible.

He listed the recoverable debts to include “the potential recoverable revenues payable to the Federation Account are not less than $20,221,018,007.00 (Twenty billion, two hundred and twenty one million, eighteen thousand, and seven hundered dollars only).”

According to five cycles of independent audit reports compiled by the National Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI), "The debts were said to have arisen from“underpayment/underassessment of taxes, royalties, levies and rents,”

Falana also noted that on October 4, 2006, the Central Bank of Nigeria apportioned $7 billion to 14 Nigerian banks to “manage” out of the nation’s external reserves, which stood at $38.07 billion, as at the end of July, 2006.

According to him, “the amount involved represented 18.39 per cent of the total external reserves at the material time.

In the same vein, following the crisis of global capitalism, which occurred in 2008, the Central Bank of Nigeria gave a bailout of $4 billion (N600 billion) to the commercial banks in the country.

Falana said “the CBN has not deemed it fit to ask for the refund of the total sum of $11 billion injected into the banking system in the space of two years.”

dimeji akinloye