Onwuka Nzeshi
14 November 2008
Abuja — Opposition has continued to mount against the offer of a $3 billion loan for infrastructural development by World Bank, with the House of Representatives passing a resolution yesterday rejecting the facility.
The House urged the Federal Government to reject the loan describing it as a "death trap" which should be avoided considering the fact that the country had only a few years ago managed to secure partial pardon of a backlog of debts owed the London and Paris clubs of creditors.
The House has directed the Joint Committee on Finance and Appropriation to meet and advise the Federal Government on the consequences of the N351 billion loan and to report back to the House in the next one month.
Motion for the debate on the facility was moved by the Chairman, House Committee on Information, Hon. Dino Melaye, and supported by 77 other lawmakers.
Melaye, in his presentation, argued that if the World Bank was truly willing to assist Nigeria, the global institution should invest in key areas of the country's needs such as housing which directly touches the populace rather than luring the country into another bogus loan that would enslave the people.
He expressed reservations about the argument that the Federal Government would be spending part of the loan on building infrastructure, insisting that previous loans obtained from World Bank were not judiciously utilised.
He warned the Presidency and Ministry of Finance to stop further negotiations on the loan with the World Bank as it was not in the best interest of the Nigerian people.
"I can tell you authoritatively that some people are already negotiating to take this loan. Taking this loan will amount to putting Nigeria on the list of indebted nations of the world," Melaye said.
Chairman, House Com-mittee on Finance, Hon. John Enoh, who also added his voice in support of the motion, said there was need for the legislature to keep vigil over the activities of the executive in order to checkmate it from running the nation aground, adding that the National Assembly ought to have been consulted before any of such foreign loans was procured.
Meanwhile, the delay in the presentation of the 2009 appropriation Bill to the National Assembly by the President re-echoed on the floor of the House yesterday as lawmakers expressed sadness over the development.
Lawmakers observed that less than two months to the end of the year, Yar'Adua was yet to forward the budget proposals to the National Assembly.
The House accused the Minister of Finance, Dr. Shamsuddeen Usman, of misleading the Federal Government on the 2009 Budget and for failing to comply with constitutional requirement of forwarding the Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) to the legislature to enable the lawmakers have some foreknowledge of the budget proposals that would be sent to it.
House Minority Leader, Hon. Mohammed Ali Ndume, who raised the motion for the second consecutive day, condemned the delay, arguing that if the trend of delayed budgets was allowed to persist, it might frustrate the efforts of the legislature to checkmate the executive, delay the process of budget harmonisation at the two chambers of the National Assembly and undermine the principle of separation of powers in a democracy.
The House resolved to urge the Presidency to intensify consultations on the budget with the National Assembly to allow for early presentation and avoid situations where the two arms disagreed over certain inputs in the budget during its consideration and passage.
The lawmakers expressed concern that the National Assembly's constitutional power of appropriation was gradually being eroded by the executive's deliberate exclusion of all legislative inputs in the budget process.
The House also resolved that in line with the Fiscal Responsibility Act, the Executive should forward every budget early enough to ensure its proper consideration and early passage by the legislature.
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Reject this loan, it,s a poisoned challize.The last time we got a loan from the I:M:F the resultant after effects led to the death of a lot of people and large scale suffering of the masses.This loan can,t be meant to help us because the so called world bank is in fact a tool to help the imperialists get richer at the expense of Africa.What on the surface have they achieved in Africa all these while,only untold hardship, even their policies have proved not to be the medicine we need for economic revival, they should… [Read Full Text]