Pretoria - Nigerian senator Ahmed Ibrahim Lawan has come under fire for approving president Muhammadu Buhari’s request for a fresh $22.7 billion loan.
A Nigerian publication, Premium Times, on Friday reported how the lawmakers approved the external loan, amidst some controversies.
The publication said opposition parties accused members of the ruling party of approving the loan which, according to them, had been rejected by Nigerians across the board.
This was contained in a statement signed by Kola Ologbodiyan, the party’s national publicity secretary.
"[T]he APC senators have...shown that their party does not have the interest of Nigerians at heart, but is only out to repress and plunge our citizens into more hardship just for their selfish gains,” Ologbodiyan was quoted saying.
It was also said the approval was a sequel to the consideration of the report of the Senate Committee on Local and Foreign Debts.
According to the publication, the chairman of the committee, Clifford Ordia, a lawmaker from Edo State, read the report and recommended that the senate approve the request.
Prior to the approval, there were arguments between lawmakers and the senate president that lasted for over half an hour, the publication reported.
It was said government indicated that the $22.7 billion loan would be used for infrastructure development.
In a recent letter, Buhari explained that the external borrowing plan targets projects cuts across all sectors with special emphasis on infrastructure, agriculture, health, education, water supply, growth and employment generation.
The approved loan will be funded by the World Bank, African Development Bank (ADB), Islamic Development Bank (IDB), Japan International Cooperation Agency (JlCA), German Development Bank (KFW), China Exim Bank and French Development Agency.
Several Nigerians on Twitter decried the borrowing culture of the Buhari-led administration and its fiscal burden on the country.