Breaking: Uproar As Senate Finally Approves $22.7 Billion Loan For Buhari

The Nigerian Senate on Thursday, approved President Muhammadu Buhari’s request to borrow $22.7 billion foreign loan.

The upper chamber of the National Assembly approved the President’s request on Thursday 5th March amid uproar from some lawmakers particularly opposition PDP.

Specifically, Senate Minority Leader, Enyinnaya Abaribe, warned on the consequences of approving all the recommendations on the loan at once.

“We are going to pass a loan of $22.7billion for which we are being denied the privilege to express our reservations. You are putting us in a very impossible position.

“There are some aspects of this loan that we object to. I want to ask on behalf of our colleagues here that we take these items one by one and vote on them,” Abaribe noted.

He also added, “I want to quote one popular saying that he who goes a borrowing, goes a sorrowing.”

He suggested that it should be done “item by item”, but Senate President Ahmad Lawan disagreed with him, noting that “I don’t want the discussion on this loan to degenerate into partisanship. My action was was not an attempt to muscle you.”

Other Senators also made contributions for and against the approval of the bill, forcing the lawmakers to move into an executive session for further deliberations.

After a Senate executive session which lasted for about 30 minutes, the lawmakers approved the two recommendations in the report.

Naija News recalls President Buhari had in November 2019, sent a letter of request to the Senate seeking approval for the federal government’s 2016-2018 external borrowing plan.

President Buhari’s letter was read during plenary on Thursday 28th November, 2019 by Senate President Ahmad Lawan.

The President in his letter, recalled that he had earlier sent the loan request originally estimated at $29.960 billion in 2016 to the eighth National Assembly under the leadership of Dr. Bukola Saraki, but it was not approved.