A National Conference delegate, Mr. Femi Falana, SAN, has asked the National Assembly to reject the request made by President Goodluck Jonathan, asking for the Assembly’s approval for a $1bn loan to aid the war against the Islamic sects, Boko Haram.
Falana said the President must explain what he had been doing with the budgets made for defence in the past few years.
He said, “The request made by President Jonathan for approval of the Senate for a loan of $1 bn to fight the menace of the Boko Haram sect should be rejected in its entirety. Between 2010 and 2013 over N3tn was budgeted for defence.
“Under the Appropriation Bill signed into law on May 23 this year, 20 per cent of the entire federal budget i.e. the sum of N968.127bn out of N4.962tn was earmarked for defence. The Senate should find out what happened to the defence budget in the middle of the year to warrant a supplementary budget of N160bn.”
Similarly, another Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Yusuf Alli, said the request by the President had created a state of uncertainty as he had yet to be fully aware of all the parameters for the request.
He urged the National Assembly to be sure there was a need for it before approving it.
He said, “I am sure they should be sure that there is a need for it before they will approve it. One does not possess all the parameters for asking for the loan, so one is a bit in a quandary. One does not have all the factors that have been considered.
“But one wants to believe that the National Assembly will be given all the facts to do the correct thing.”
Source: Punch
