The All Progressives Congress (APC), South-East, Wednesday, described the Senate’s rejection of President Muhammadu Buhari’s loan request as an ill wind that would blow no one any good.
The upper chamber of the National Assembly had during plenary on Tuesday, rejected a letter from President Buhari to borrow the sum of $29.680 for funding of some critical infrastructures across the country.
Reacting to the development, Hon. Hycienth Ngwu, the South-East Publicity Secretary of the APC appealed to the Senators to rescind their decision.
Ngwu stated that “the rejection of the request by the Senate is ill-advised and an ill wind that blows no one any good.”
He noted that “the loan, which is within the acceptable Debt Management Office debt threshold of 19.39% for External Debt/GDP ratio and far less below 56.0% debt threshold for External Debt/GDP ratio by the World Bank’s, Country Policy and Institutional Assessment (CPIA), for Countries in Nigeria’s peer-group, respectively, is sustainable in the medium-term.
“We also believe that the only quick way out of the present economic recession, which has thrown the masses into untold hardship and weakened all productive sectors of the economy, is by massive spending by the government.
“And with the fall in oil production and its price, the only rational way for government to raise enough fund to exit the economy from recession is through external borrowing which has the advantage of long maturity profile, very little interest rate and creates large space for domestic borrowing by the private sector participants.”
He further declared that “we believe in the ability of the Federal Government to judiciously apply the loan in building the critical infrastructures as planned in order to quicken the diversification of the economy away from oil dependence. The diversification which will come with robust economic growth would substantially make our economy self-sustaining and pay back the loan effortlessly.
“We are aware that some years back, the public sector debt in United Kingdom was over 200% of their GDP. But today, the growth in UK economy occasioned by the debt has helped to reduce the burden of debt.
“We hereby appeal to the entire members of the National Assembly to put the nation and the masses first by rescinding their rejection of the loan plan by the Federal Government, in partnership devoid of party sentiments we shall make Nigeria great again.”
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