Senate Approves Buhari’s $22.7bn Loan Request

The Nigerian Senate on Wednesday approved President Muhammadu Buhari’s request to borrow $22.7 billion externally, Naijaparry News reports.

The upper legislative chamber okayed the request on Thursday amid objections from some senators.

While the matter was being debated, Senate Minority leader, Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe, warned against considering all the recommendations on the loan at once.

He suggested that it should be done “item by item”, but Senate President Ahmad Lawan disagreed with him.

Abaribe said: “We are going to pass a loan of $22.7billion for which we are being denied the privilege to express our reservations. You are putting us in a very impossible position.

“There are some aspect of this loan that we object to. I want to ask on behalf of our colleagues here that we take these items one by one and vote on them.”

Lawan in his response said: “You (Minority Leader) have not been denied of your privilege.

“I don’t want the discussion on this loan to degenerate into partisanship. My action was was not an attempt to muscle you.”

“I want to quote one popular saying that he who goes a borrowing, goes a sorrowing,” Abaribe replied.

Subsequent debate on the matter forced the senate into an executive session during which it agreed to approve the request.

Buhari sent the loan request to the senate in 2019 though it was rejected by the previous senate under Bukola Saraki.