Chairman, Senate Committee on Media and Affairs, Aliyu Sabi Abdulahi, has<\/p>\n
indicted officials of the Presidency, over what he considers to be lack of
\ndue diligence.
\nIn his words words, \u201csome people around the President who ought to carry
\nout their jobs very seriously, are not doing that\u201d.<\/p>\n
This came after the Senate rejected the Federal Government\u2019s request for a
\n$30bn loan on November 1, 2016, on grounds of incomplete presentation.<\/p>\n
According to Mr Abdulahi, \u201cdetails of the plan were missing.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you plan to borrow such a huge sum of money, it\u2019s important to include
\nthe details and come up with a solid plan.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the end of the day, they are creating a situation whereby when the
\nsenate acts in line with its constitutional duties, they tend to now see
\nthat as an anti-action,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
Explaining further, he said it was important to note that at the beginning
\nof the eighth senate, \u201cthe senate was very clear, emphatic and unambiguous
\nabout certain things.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was also an agreement that the Federal Government could go for a
\nconcessionary loan, to enhance the implementation of the 2016 budget,
\nwhich already had a borrowing plan of about 2.3 trillion,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n
Furthermore, he clarified that the senate is not averse to the executive,
\ncoming up with something like this. \u201cwe actually made that suggestion
\nalso, through the recession resolutions that we passed\u201d.<\/p>\n
He however stated that as representatives of the people, the senate has a
\nduty to ensure that only actions that would bring people succor, rather
\nthan putting them in more difficulty, are taken.<\/p>\n
Considering the borrowing plan as a very serious matter, he said reports
\ngathered, have estimated that the loan may take up to 30 years to recover.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow do we say the letter that Mr President brought is sufficient for us
\nto just give our consent?\u201d he questioned.<\/p>\n
Explaining further about the senate\u2019s rejection of the President\u2019s
\nrequest, he said \u201cwe must therefore be very fair and thorough in taking
\nsuch a decision.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have given approval for so many things, however on this particular
\nloan, every senator is trying to consider what is in it for the
\nconstituents of the various state local government areas.\u201d<\/p>\n
The essence of this representation is that we are here to ensure that the
\ndividends of democracy gets down to almost every cranny.<\/p>\n
Proper Presentation<\/p>\n
The senate leaders had promised to meet with relevant members of the
\nexecutive to discuss the details and do a proper presentation to the
\nsenate at a later date.<\/p>\n
The House of Representatives is however yet to consider the President\u2019s
\nrequest as they had earlier called off the consideration which was to take
\nplace on Thursday.<\/p>\n
The legislators pointed out that despite the good intentions of President
\nBuhari, they had reservations about his team.<\/p>\n
There are indications that it may not be considered this week as well.<\/p>\n
The senators turned down the external borrowing request due to what they
\ncalled \u201clack of documents supporting the request as referenced in the
\nletter\u201d.<\/p>\n
President Buhari wrote to the National Assembly seeking its approval for
\nan external borrowing of 29.9 billion dollars to ensure the prompt
\nimplementation of projects.<\/p>\n
He said that the projects would cut across agriculture, health, education,
\nand water supply.<\/p>\n
In the letter read on the floor of the House of Reps by Speaker Yakubu
\nDogara, the President explained:<\/p>\n
\u201cConsidering the huge infrastructural deficit currently being experienced
\nin the country and the enormous financial resources required to fill the
\ngap in the face of dwindling resources and the inability of our annual
\nbudget to bridge the infrastructure deficit, it has become necessary to
\nresort to prudent external borrowing to bridge the financial gap which
\nwill largely be applied to key infrastructure projects namely power,
\nrailway and road projects, amongst others.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Chairman, Senate Committee on Media and Affairs, Aliyu Sabi Abdulahi, has indicted officials of the Presidency, over what he considers to be lack of due diligence. In his words words,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":54197,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-54262","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-exclusive"],"yoast_head":"\n