September 19, (THEWILL) – The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has asked Senate President Ahmad Lawan and Speaker Femi Gbajabiamila to reject President Muhammadu Buhari’s loan requests.
The body asked that acceptance be held until the executive publishes details of how loans obtained since May 29, 2015, were spent.
THEWILL reported that President Buhari had requested the Senate to approve sovereign loans of $4.054bn and €710million as well as grant components of $125m for proposed projects.
According to the letter from the president, the sovereign loans will be sourced from the World Bank, French Development Agency (AFD), China-Exim Bank, International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), Credit Suisse Group and Standard Chartered/China Export and Credit (SINOSURE).
The presidency had on Saturday in a statement issued by Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, defended its external borrowing plan by listing 15 projects, spread across the six geo-political zones of the country, to be financed with more than $4 billion from multilateral institutions, under the 2018-2021 medium term (rolling) external borrowing plan.
The presidency also said Buhari’s request to the Senate listed 15 proposed pipeline projects, the objectives, the implementation period, benefiting States, as well as the implementing Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs).
But SERAP in an open letter dated September 18, 2021, and signed by its Deputy Director, Kolawole Oluwadare, expressed “concerns about the growing debt crisis, the lack of transparency and accountability in the spending of loans that have been obtained, and the perceived unwillingness or inability of the National Assembly to vigorously exercise its constitutional duties to check the apparently indiscriminate borrowing by the government.”
SERAP said: “The National Assembly should not allow the government to accumulate unsustainable levels of debt, and use the country’s scarce resources for staggering and crippling debt service payments rather than for improved access of poor and vulnerable Nigerians to basic public services and human rights.”
According to SERAP, “accumulation of excessive debts and unsustainable debt-servicing are inconsistent with the government’s international obligations to use the country’s maximum available resources to progressively achieve the realisation of economic and social rights, and access of Nigerians to basic public services.”
The letter, which was copied to the chairmen of the Public Accounts Committees of the National Assembly, alps said: “The country’s public debt has mushroomed with no end in sight. The growing national debt is clearly not sustainable. There has been no serious attempt by the government to cut the cost of governance.
“The leadership of the National Assembly ought to stand up for Nigerians by asserting the body’s constitutional powers to ensure limits on national debt and deficits.
“SERAP urges you to urgently propose a resolution and push for a constitutional amendment on the debt limit, with the intent of reducing national debt and deficits.
“This recommendation is entirely consistent with the constitutional oversight functions and spending powers of the National Assembly, and the country’s international anti-corruption and human rights obligations.”
SERAP claimed that indiscriminate borrowing has an effect on the full enjoyment of Nigerians’ economic and social rights; and that spending large portion of the country’s yearly budget to service debts has limited the ability of the government to ensure access to health care, education, clean water, and other basic needs.
The group further warned that “should the National Assembly and its leadership fail to rein in government borrowing, and to ensure transparency and accountability in the spending of public loans, SERAP would consider appropriate legal action to compel the National Assembly to discharge its constitutional duties.”
It added, “The National Assembly under your leadership has a constitutional responsibility to urgently address the country’s debt crisis, which is exacerbated by overspending on lavish allowances for high-ranking public officials, lack of transparency and accountability, as well as the absence of political will to recover trillions of naira reported to be missing or mismanaged by the Office of the Auditor-General of the Federation.
“The National Assembly should stop the government from borrowing behind the people’s backs. Lack of information about details of specific projects on which loans are spent, and on loan conditions creates incentives for corruption, and limits citizens’ ability to scrutinise the legality and consistency of loans with the Nigerian Constitution of 1999 (as amended), as well as to hold authorities to account.
“SERAP notes that if approved, the country’s debts will exceed N35 trillion. The government is also reportedly pushing the maturity of currently-secured loans to between 10 and 30 years. N11.679 trillion is reportedly committed into debt servicing, while only N8.31 trillion was expended on capital/development expenditure between 2015 and 2020.
“Ensuring transparency and accountability in the spending of loans by the government and cutting the cost of governance would address the onerous debt servicing, and improve the ability of the government to meet the country’s international obligations to use maximum available resources to ensure the enjoyment of basic economic and social rights, such as quality healthcare and education.”
