Fiery Lagos lawyer Femi Falana, SAN, has advised President Muhammadu Buhari to stop chasing a $29.9bn loan if he is serious about fighting corruption. Falana said if Buhari were serious about the fight against corruption, he would not want to mortgage the future of the country by seeking the loan.
The Federal Government claims the money is desperately needed to plug the country out of recession. However, the Senate on Tuesday threw the president’s loan request into the bin.
But the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, said the President would resubmit the request to borrow the money.
Instead of taking the loan, Falana said Buhari should rather engage in an aggressive recovery of looted funds stashed away in foreign banks by past military rulers in the country.
He gave the advice at a symposium titled: “X-raying 50 years of military intervention in Nigeria’s politics”, organised by the Department of Political Science, University of Lagos.
Falana, drove his listeners through how the military started corruption in the country. He 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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