Days after President Muhammadu Buhari wrote to the National Assembly for approval on plans to borrow a fresh $5.513bn loan, he has been asked to give details on the loans taken by his administration.
The demand was made by the Socio-Economic Rights Accountability Projects (SERAP). SERAP confirmed the move in a series of tweets on its official Twitter handle on Sunday, May 31.
According to SERAP, it filed a Freedom of Information (FoI) request on Saturday, May 30, calling for details of all the foreign loans that the Buhari administration has taken since its inception on May 29, 2015.
President Buhari solicited for approval on a $5.5 billion loan to finance the revised 2020 appropriation bill in a way that will enable the accommodation of some priority projects.
The information of the loan was contained in a letter directed to the House of Representatives by the president on Thursday, May 28.
According to the President, the funds will be used for the federal government’s priority projects and will also be channelled toward the fight against Covid-19 pandemic.
Just before that, an N850 billion loan requested by the President was approved by the House of Representatives on Tuesday, May 12.
The loan was requested by President Buhari for the purpose of funding the 2020 budget.
The approval by the Green Chamber was given during its plenary held in Abuja on Tuesday.
In a similar event, earlier in March this year, a disagreement broke out on the floor of the Nigerian Senate after deliberations on the $22 billion external borrowing request by President Buhari started.
Clifford Ordia, the chairman of the committee who read out the report on Thursday, March 5, suggested that the lawmakers should approve the foreign loan request.
However, the decision to deliberate behind closed doors sparked a back-and-forth for over half an hour between lawmakers and the Senate president, Ahmed Lawan.
