The Senate has disclosed that President Muhammadu Buhari would expend the request for external loan of $29.96billion on the execution of five legacy Infrastructural projects across the country, just as it said that Nigeria cannot stop borrowing.
Speaking with Journalists in Abuja, at the weekend, Chairman, Senate Committee on Finance, Senator Solomon Olamilekan Adeola (APC, Lagos West), who disclosed that Buhari’s administration has five legacy projects which it planned to spend the money on, however, identified the projects as the Second Niger Bridge, the East-West Road, the Lagos-Ibadan expressway, the Mambila Power project, and the Kaduna-Abuja Highway.
Adeola, who noted that the loan will not have untold hardship on the people, said that if the need arises, the Senate would organise a public hearing where Nigerians in all strata of the society would come up with suggestions before the final approval by the lawmakers, adding that at the end of the day, the Senate would monitor the utilization of the loan.
The senator also vowed that the Senate would monitor the over 300 revenue generating agencies, with a view to ensuring that revenues that should get to the government coffers get there and used for the overall interest of the country.
He has also threatened that the Senate would probe claims about the Volume of Imported Fuel and those who have cheated Nigerians should be prepared to face the full wrath of the law as they would be prosecuted, adding that the Senate would block all the leakages in the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).
It would be recalled that President Muhammadu Buhari, had on November 28, written to the Senate, again requesting for the approval of 2016-2018 External Borrowing to the tune of $30billion to be spent by the Federal Government to execute key Infrastructural projects across the country.
The letter, which was dated November 26, 2019, was read on the floor of the Red Chamber by the President of the Senate, Dr Ahmad Lawan, during plenary.
In the letter, President Buhari explained that it became imperative to represent the request because the Eighth National Assembly approved only a part of the External Borrowing request forwarded to it in September, 2016.
Adeola said, “The approval of the loan would afford the government, an opportunity to achieve the completion of the projects before the end of the Buhari’s administration.
“The borrowing plan would assist the government to fulfill its promise to Nigerians.
“The plan is not only for one or two years, it is for the next four years. So, the loan would be taken in tranche.
“For instance, what the government desire to borrow in 2020, would be requested in 2020. That is why it is called a plan. The Senate will monitor its utilization as soon as they are coming in.
“The Federal Government is not asking the National Assembly to approve for it, the sum of $29.96billion loan. This is because in the last Senate, about $6billion have been approved for President Muhammadu Buhari to borrow out of the $29.96billion.
“It is the balance of that figure that the government is asking us to approve for it in the borrowing plan, which is about $22.6billion. The Senate Committee on Finance will organise a public he aring on the issue if need be. In the alternative, we would engage the various agencies of the government to give them a clearer view of how the money would be utilized.