Ex-APC spokesman urges N’Assembly to reject Buhari’s loan requests

Former spokesman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Timi Frank, has urged the National Assembly to reject loan requests from President Muhammadu Buhari.

Frank who decried the rise in Nigeria’s external debt noted that approving more loan requests would amount to mortgaging the future of Nigerians.

In a statement on Tuesday, September 4, 2018, Frank accused the Buhari-led government of mismanaging previous loans.

Frank wondered how the Nigeria's external debt profile "skyrocketed" from $10 billion in 2015, to $22.08 billion as at June 30, 2018 -- representing a whopping 114.05 per cent -- according to statistics from the Debt Management Office (DMO).

“Despite over 100 per cent rise in the nation’s external debt under the Buhari administration, there is little or nothing on ground - in terms of concrete economic, social and infrastructural development to justify the huge debt already incurred by Buhari,” Frank said while reacting to the $328 million loan from China.

“The astronomical rise in the nation’s Foreign debt portfolio under the present administration has become worrisome. President Muhammadu Buhari should stop mortgaging the future of Nigerians.

“Nigerians have not seen the proposed dividends accruable from these loans, otherwise, Nigeria would not have emerged the poverty capital of the world with over 87 million people living in extreme poverty - according to a report by the Brookings Institution on the World Poverty Clock, recently.

“If something is not done urgently to stop these huge loans being amassed by Buhari, the country’s future will be in jeopardy and our children’s children will certainly turn slaves to our creditors. Unfortunately, this is the kind of future that Buhari is preparing for Nigerians - both living and yet unborn.

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“Nigerians only hear of loans that the present administration has incurred in the last three years, but there is nothing on ground to show that such amounts have come into the Federal coffers for development,” he stated.

The former APC chieftain accused the federal government of “returning the country to pre-1999 debt level which former President fought hard to cancel.”

“This is not the way Buhari met Nigeria and he must not be allowed to worsen the economic condition of the country further, having failed to improve it. The National Assembly owes the country a duty to stop approving incessant foreign loan requests by Buhari.

“The world also owes Nigeria a duty to stop granting these loans because they are not being utilized for the welfare of the people,” he stated.

President Buhari recently signed a $328 million with the Chinese government to boost telecommunication infrastructure in the country.