By Fola James
The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP appears worried with the nation’s rising debt and has now asked the National Assembly to ignore any fresh loan request by the federal government, particularly the proposed $1.2 billion loan from Brazil.This loan “will exacerbate our nation’s debt burden, mortgage our agricultural sector, weaken or investment capacity and worsen our food security challenge,” the party said.
Earlier in the week, the Minister of Finance, Zainab Ahmed disclosed at a meeting with the Senate committee of Local and Foreign debt that the government needed to borrow funds in order to bridge the infrastructure deficit across the country.
The Debt Management Office, DMO had also expressed worries over the spiraling debt to creditors which it claimed will rise to over N36 trillion by end of the year.
The development has generated reaction from the opposition party, which on Wednesday said in a statement that the nation’s future is bleak if the federal government continues to borrow.
Kola Ologbondiyan, the National Publicity Secretary of the party said it is unfortunate that the Muhammadu Buhari’s administration has gone ahead to borrow huge funds in spite of public outcry against the accumulation of loans, especially to China, Nigeria’s biggest creditors.
The Federal Government said the US$1.2 billion loan from Brazil would be used to develop the agriculture sector.
But Ologbondiyan said that the loan will further weaken the nation and will be to the detriment of the poor masses and generations yet unborn.
He said the federal government cannot use the agricultural sector to justify the loan, which terms and conditions will be too high for the nation to pay PDP noted that “with the US$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 N36.2 trillion,” adding that the nation’s economy could plunge into a big crisis due to the loan.
The party, further stated that what the managers of the economy required at the moment is prudent management of resources to create wealth and generate employment for Nigerians, some of who have trenchantly criticized the Buhari government for the worsening debt profile.
