$1.2bn Brazil Loan: Stop Reckless Borrowing – PDP Bashes Buhari
Rejects phony projects, warns Nigeria fast becoming a beggar nation
BY VICTOR BUORO, ABUJA – The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is screaming blue murder over fresh plans by the Federal Government to access additional $1.2 billion loan from Brazil despite the public outcry against the current moves.
Touting patriotic fervor, PDP is accusing the President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration of further mortgaging the nation through constant accumulation of loans from China and other foreign interests.
The opposition party, which warned that Nigeria is fast deteriorating into a beggar nation, cautioned the Buhari Presidency not to further weaken the nation by “using nebulous agricultural programmes as justification for further accumulation of foreign loans, without clear terms and conditions, to the detriment of the poor masses and generations yet unborn.”
PDP’s National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, warned in a statement that; “The loan request, if approved by the National Assembly, will exacerbate our nation’s debt burden, mortgage our agricultural sector, weaken our investment capacity and worsen our food security challenge.
“Our party invites Nigerians to note that with the $1.2 billion (N459 billion) Brazilian loan, in addition to the N5.20 trillion borrowing already proposed in the 2021 budget, our nation’s debt burden will hit a disastrous N36.2 trillion which will plunge our economy into a devastating pitfall.”
The Party urged the National Assembly to save the nation by being circumspect in handling the loan request in the national interest, adding; “Instead of this recourse to reckless borrowings, the PDP urges the Buhari Presidency to apply itself productively by looking inwards and finding ways to harness and create wealth with the resources abounding in our country.”
“What Nigeria needs now is for government to be more innovative and resourceful in galvanizing a productive economy instead of reducing our nation to a beggar status among the comity of nations”, the statement counselled.
