A National Conference delegate, Mr. Femi Falana, SAN, has asked the National Assembly to reject the request made by President Goodluck Jonathan, asking for the Assembly’s approval for a $1bn loan to aid the war against the Islamic sects, Boko Haram.
Falana said the President must explain what he had been doing with the budgets made for defence in the past few years.
He said, “The request made by President Jonathan for approval of the Senate for a loan of $1 bn to fight the menace of the Boko Haram sect should be rejected in its entirety. Between 2010 and 2013 over N3tn was budgeted for defence.
“Under the Appropriation Bill signed into law on May 23 this year, 20 per cent of the entire federal budget i.e. the sum of N968.127bn out of N4.962tn was earmarked for defence. The Senate should find out what happened to the defence budget in the middle of the year to warrant a supplementary budget of N160bn.”
Similarly, another Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Yusuf Alli, said the request by the President had created a state of uncertainty as he had yet to be fully aware of all the parameters for the request.
He urged the National Assembly to be sure there was a need for it before approving it.
He said, “I am sure they should be sure that there is a need for it before they will approve it. One does not possess all the parameters for asking for the loan, so one is a bit in a quandary. One does not have all the factors that have been considered.
“But one wants to believe that the National Assembly will be given all the facts to do the correct thing.”
A security consultant, Ben Okezia, faulted the request by Jonathan, saying the Army already had a budget which was being used to fund its counter-terrorism campaign in the North-East.
According to him, the government should not attempt to hoodwink Nigerians. He said the number of Boko Haram insurgents were not up to 2000 and that not all of them were armed.
He therefore cautioned the National Assembly against approving the loan request, saying the government was not sending everyone in the Army to fight against Boko Haram and as such there was no need for the loan.
Okezie said, “What does he (Jonathan) want to buy with $1bn? Are they saying all the soldiers in the Army are going to fight against Boko Haram? The money is for 2015 elections.”
They know that APC will match them money for money.
But the Coordinator of National Information Centre, Mr. Mike Omeri, said the Federal Government would not spare resources to bring back the schoolgirls abducted from the Government Secondary School, Chibok, Borno State, on April 14.
Omeri was responding to a question from a journalist on whether the resources of the Federal Government had depleted in the fight against terrorism such that it now needed to borrow $1bn to prosecute the war.
The NUC coordinator said, “Even the United States goes for this kind of facility. For any country involved in such military expedition, not just the Boko Haram issue, but engaged in a number of military exercises, its stock will deplete. Every country must restock to reinforce its capability.
“That is not to say that the resource of Nigeria has finished and therefore we needed to go for loan. It is not cash that will be given to Nigeria. It is a long term facility.
“It is country-to-country kind of process because what the government is looking for is the approval of the National Assembly so that the President can negotiate for arms to consolidate, to reinforce the stock the armed forces have and to guarantee that we will win the war against insurgency and we have an effective and capable assets to prosecute any unforeseen issue. This happens to all countries. It is not exclusive to Nigeria.”
He added, “Once the country is engaged in any kind of activity of this nature, it sure will lead to depletion of resources. So, I don’t think the loan is because the resources are depleted. For the amount so far spent, I am not in a position to say so.
“We are still prosecuting the war. So, it will be preposterous to begin to calculate cost. Don’t forget, our citizens have been abducted. And so whatever we need to do that we must do to get our citizens back, we will do it. The country will do it.”
Jonathan had on Wednesday forwarded a letter to the National Assembly, asking the lawmakers to urgently approve a $1bn external loan for the Federal Government to confront the Boko Haram insurgency. Click to signup for FREE news updates, latest information and hottest gists everyday
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All these president, past and present will crash tbis country o. Mismanagement is enormous, stealling in the name of unfirtunate situations is outrageous....are going to continue in this underdeveloped nature and attitude that negatively affecting the lives of the people every blessed day, and some human beings called presidents dont care.....why are they eating the future after consuming the present, tbis is barbaric. Many of us are now old, since childhood nothing gained from this country, no peace, no good roads, no medical, no water, no light...
ReplyDeleteGod will wipe all this people out. We have started praying for them. They need violent prayer. They will use all the stolen funds to treat untreatable ailment. Lord of suddenly will wipe them out suddenly like the egyptians.
DeleteWhy call God into this? God has given all human the power of free will to determine their future. These politicians knows that and that is why they never give a fuck when they steal from the people. It is up to the people to take back their government by speaking out in numbers and ballots. Never mind, watch what will happen after the 2015 election. The people will hear from us. We are coming to take over our country and all these thieves will get their judgement.
DeleteMay GOD help us from this maladministration .
ReplyDeleteMay GOD help us from this maladministration .
ReplyDeleteYes.You are right. No gain for being a citizen of this country except for those in government. And it has been established that our version of Federal system of government had not helped and will never help. It is foolishness that makes people to do same things over and over and expect different results. We need to try to do things differently . For anybody who wants progress for this country must support regionalism or devolution of power to federating units.We need to do things in a different way now. There is too much power at the centre.And according to popular saying. Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely
ReplyDeleteIt's always sad reading about people in government citing US,UK and the developed nations as example when defending blatant irresponsibility and outright corruption.True US does borrow money but what they do with the money are open to all the citizens to see and mostly applaud.They have good roads,uninterupted power supply,good medical facilities and mostly upright politicians.which of this necessary things does nigeria has?am sure they could raise more than 1bn dollars by plugging most of the loopholes/leakages,theft and corruption if they want to
ReplyDeleteGood comments all,
ReplyDeletefalana well done, okezie good job, the most stupid one among you all is the NUC coordinator, when the asuu were on on strike, did plead to the govt to get loan to settle the requirement from the union. u now av the guts to plead for the useless loan the govt wants to use to rig the forthcomin election. no no no, God will not support you all