It has emerged that President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration has incurred a N2.2tn domestic debt in just one year, the Punch reports. And civil rights groups are spitting fire.
Angered Civil rights groups, in separate interviews with the newspaper on Friday, said that there were no visible impacts of the borrowed money on the country.
The Punch had reported on Wednesday that statistics obtained from the Debt Management Office showed that the Federal Government’s domestic debt stood at N10.6tn as of June this year, up from N8.4tn a year ago.
The report showed the country’s total debt liability spiked to N16.29tn in June 2016 from N12.12tn in June 2015.
The Head of Abuja Social Action, Vivian Bellonwu-Okafor is the least amused. She said the only response of the administration to the economic recession was “to borrow more money.”
Her group is worried over the circumvention of the laid down legal provisions for loan acquisitions, she said.
Bellonwu-Okafor stated, “The Fiscal Responsibility Act, which outlines the democratic steps that should accompany any loan, is not being respected and so in this regard, loans are taken in a most shoddy and blanket manner without any clear purpose or project line tied to such acquisition(s) as well as cost-benefit analysis, as stipulated by the FRA.
“It is thus not surprising that government has not only taken but also advanced loans for recurrent items such as payment of salaries, sponsorship to foreign trips and conferences etc; this is in clear violation of the FRA which states that loans shall only be acquired for capital expenditure(s).”
Also the President of Campaign for Democracy, Abdul Usman, that the borrowing did not show desirable performances by Buhari’s government.
In his view, the President and his cabinet of ministers should be held accountable not only for corruption, but also on debts.
He said, “Nigerians have never had it this bad and are losing faith in the change promised by the administration. There is hunger almost everywhere in the land. Citizens will want to see published documents or Mr. President should address the nation as we have yet to see the positivity on the budgeted N500bn social welfare.”
The Executive Secretary of the Anti-Corruption Network, Ebenezer Oyetakin told the newspaper that the craze for borrowing had shown that Buhari and his crew are not creative.
He said it was unfortunate that the government, which based its campaign on “change”, had reverted to the old practices Nigerians voted against.
He stated, “The thrust of the change is expected to be largely in the way we handle the economy. The craze for borrowing simply shows how uncreative we are and the lack of innovative thinking economically.
“What would have happened if we were Republic of Cuba that was and is still under total economic, commercial and financial blockade by the USA and its allies for 55 Years? What will happen if the entire world refuses to lend us money? I am against our craze for borrowing as a nation.”
However, Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun, has justified the increase in the debts.
When asked on what the money was spent on, she told the Punch, “I guess it would have been used to fund the budget and whatever government is spending money on.”
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