The Senate President and other policymakers are quietly moving forward in their consideration of President Muhammadu Buhari’s ridiculous request to add about ₦1.6 trillion to the already unmanageable external debt stock of ₦13 trillion. The argument from the presidency is that the new loan will be put into sectors like agriculture, health, energy, education, and others. Of course, this is the same story the federal government sells every time it is about to carry its begging bowl to Washington DC or Beijing. Only this time, Nigeria can find what it’s looking for outside, within.
The main story the presidency is selling in this loan request is that Buhari and his Fulani-dominated federal government are so concerned with “poverty reduction as well as protection of the most vulnerable and very poor,” that the loans are of urgent necessity.
But the real questions that the presidency should have answered before submitting the request to Senate President Ahmed Lawan and the rubber-stamp National Assembly are: What happened to the loans Buhari took from China, the World Bank, and other lenders in the last five years? Did Buhari and his aides not promise that these loans would be used to address the same problems the newest loan requested is hoping to address? Or, is it that something happened that made those past loans inefficient in addressing the problem for which they were granted?
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