Loan request: Don’t mortgage our future, Falana tells Buhari
A Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Femi
Falana, said if President Muhammadu Buhari was serious about fighting
corruption, he [Buhari] would not mortgage the future of the country by
seeking a $29.9bn loan.
Ever since the economy fell into
recession primarily as a result of a significant drop in oil prices, the
Federal Government has been looking for ways to get the economy back on
track, including its recent application for a $29.9bn loan from
external sources.
Though the Senate rejected the loan
application on Tuesday, the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji
Lai Mohammed, said the President would resubmit the request to borrow
the money.
However, Falana said Buhari should stop
chasing after the loan, but rather engage in an aggressive recovery of
looted funds stashed away in foreign banks by past military rulers in
the country.
The lawyer said this at a symposium
tagged: “X-raying 50 years of military intervention in Nigeria’s
politics”, organised by the Department of Political Science, University
of Lagos.
Falana, who explained how the military
started corruption in the country, said, “Between 1978 and 1986, this
country incurred debts to the extent that we did not know how much we
owed under the regime of General Ibrahim Babangida. They had to engage
the services of a consultant in the West to tell us what we owed, and of
course, the London Paris Club gave us a figure. That was the extent to
which governance deteriorated.
“By the time [former President Olusegun]
Obasanjo was paying the debts, in one fell swoop in 2005, this country
parted with $12.4bn for the West to forgive our debts. Meanwhile, they
were the real sinners. At that time, on both the principal and the
interest, we had paid $42bn. That amount alone could have eradicated
poverty in the entire Africa.
“Now again, President Buhari wants to
get a loan of $30bn. You know what that means? For generations unborn,
we will mortgage their future, except the money is genuinely meant for
infrastructural development, which is usually not the case once the
money comes in. So Buhari should forget about the $30bn loan when he can
get more than that if he goes after our stolen money in the West.”
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