Sanni Onogu and Jide Orintunsin, Abuja
The All Progressives Congress (APC) has flayed former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar for urging the National Assembly not to approve any new loan request by the Federal Government meant for non-viable projects.
Atiku had in a letter to Senate President Ahmad Lawan, on Tuesday told federal lawmakers that the country would be “ risking insolvency if it continues to borrow money for recurrent expenditure.”
In the letter titled: “Nigeria must avoid debt crisis” and sighted by The Nation, the former Presidential candidate of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party(PDP), reminded the lawmakers of their “role as a check on the excesses of other arms of government.
He therefore implored them to “refuse to approve any new loan requests, where such loans are to be spent on projects or items that are not income-generating or production-based are indeed viable.”
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The former vice-president, who further alleged that monies previously borrowed were not used for productive purposes, said Nigerians cannot afford to keep quiet “while our nation teeters towards financial peril.”
The letter reads in part: “On May 29, 2015, Nigeria’s total national debt stood approximately at N12 trillion.
“As of August 2020, our national debt has tripled to N28.63 trillion. Even more alarming is the fact that the foreign debt portion of our national debt has risen from less than $10 billion on May 29, 2015, to almost $30 billion in August 2020.
“A further cause for concern is the fact that not all of these debts are necessary. A study of the use to which these monies have been put to will show that much of it has gone towards items or project that are non-productive or viable.”
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