Former Vice President of Nigeria, Atiku Abubakar, has said that he cannot sit and watch the government of President Muhammadu Buhari squander the future of Nigerian Youth as well as generations yet unborn with loans that are not income-generating or production-based.
Atiku in a letter to the Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, asked the National Assembly to reject the approval of any new loan request meant for projects that are not viable. He said Nigerians cannot sit back and watch “while our nation teeters towards financial peril”.
Atiku added, “On May 29, 2015, Nigeria’s total national debt stood approximately at N12trn. As of August 2020, our national debt has trippled to N28.63trn. Even more alarming is the fact that the foreign debt portion of our national debt has risen from less than $10bn on May 29, 2015, to almost $30bn 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.
“As such, in view of your role as a check on the excesses of other arms of government, may I suggest that going forward, the National Assembly should 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, or indeed viable.”
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