$5.5bn foreign loan: APC slams PDP for opposing Buhari’s request

The All Progressives Congress (APC), has slammed the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for opposing the decision of the federal government to obtain a $5.5 billion foreign loan.


The PDP while kicking against President Muhammadu Buhari’s request to borrow the foreign loan had said it would mortgage the future of the unborn generations and drive the country into further debt.

The statement further reads: “the PDP in its statement unapologetically claimed that it ‘meritoriously’ governed the country for 16 years and ‘handed over a buoyant economy to the APC in 2015.

“Really, what could be further from the truth? The APC considers the claim a new height of PDP’s insensitivity to the populace and has further exposed the PDP as a Party unrepentant for the rot it left the country after its 16 years rule.

“Even when crude sold above $100, the immediate-past PDP-led administration struggled to build savings. In addition, the excess crude account was misspent. Poor capital expenditure meant badly-needed infrastructure development was put on hold. This forced construction companies with government contracts to cut back and sack thousands of workers.

“Nigerians will sadly recall how in the leadup to President Buhari’s assumption of office, former finance minister and coordinating minister of the economy, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala in May 2015, revealed that Nigeria was borrowing to pay government salaries.

“‘Out of the N882 billion budgetary provision for borrowing, the government has borrowed 473 billion naira to meet up with recurrent expenditure, including salaries and overheads.

“On April 2016, Okonjo-Iweala who served as finance minister under President Olusegun Obasanjo between 2003 and 2006 and again under President Goodluck Jonathan between 2011 and 2015 also blamed the country’s present economic situation on the zero political will of the immediate past government to save for the rainy day.

“Today, successive national budgets of the APC administration has prioritised and increased budgetary allocation for capital projects as one of the strategic ways to stimulate economic growth in the country. The economy has started responding to policy initiatives of the government as evidenced in the improvement and stability of the naira exchange rate; increase in the country’s foreign reserves and the recent announcement by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) that the country has officially come out of recession.

“The borrowing plan of the President Buhari-led administration is inevitable in view of the current economic realities in the country. As stated in the president’s loan request to the National Assembly, the loan will be invested in infrastructure projects such as the Mambilla Hydropower Project, Construction of a Second Runway at the Nnamdi Azikiwe international Airport, counterpart funding for Rail projects and the construction of the Bodo-Bonny Road, with a Bridge across the Opobo Channel.

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