Senate President Defends Nigeria’s Excessive Borrowing

Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, on Thursday, apprised President Muhammadu Buhari of the activities lined up by the National Assembly, saying after the meeting that Nigeria is a poor nation that has no option but to borrow to fund infrastructure.

Fielding questions from correspondents after the meeting at the presidential villa, Abuja, he, however, assured that the legislature would not be frivolous in granting Executive requests for loans.

According to him, such requests would be subjected to thorough scrutiny to be sure that they are necessary and when approved, the use of the loan would be monitored through oversight.

“What I want to assure Nigerians here is that we are not going to be frivolously supporting or approving loans for the executive arm of government.

Whenever we have to approve any loan, we have to insist on the details of what projects will be funded by those loans. We’ll have to look at the conditions that are attached to the loans.

Our options are really very limited as a country. First, we don’t have the necessary revenues, Nigeria is poor, we shouldn’t deceive ourselves. Nigeria is not rich, given the circumstances we live in, given the challenges we have; our resources are so low, our revenues are so low and therefore, the option of not doing anything, just to sit because we have no money, we shouldn’t go for infrastructure development, is not even an option worthy of consideration,” he said.