* Blaming the national assembly for the country’s debt problem
* He said reckless debt is responsible for Nigeria’s policy challenges
* Orientation training plan for the 10th National Assembly
Civil Society Organisations, (CSOs) have raised concerns over the rising debt profile in Nigeria describing it as a ‘debt trap’ that has crippled the country’s crisis-ridden economy and cost the country foreign assets.
CSOs consisting of the Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Center, (CISLAC) and Christian Aid in partnership with Transparency International, TI), noted that Nigeria is currently in a debt crisis with a fiscal deficit higher than the statutory threshold of 3 percent , and increasingly unsustainable . debt profile and debt service rising that has been worsened by interest rate increases among others.
Speaking at a media briefing yesterday in Abuja, the Executive Director, CISLAC, Auwal Musa-Rafsanjani, lamented that the National Assembly has failed in its constitutional duty to check the excesses of the executive arm of government and is therefore to blame for the current debt. crisis facing the nation.
He said because of the ‘rubber stamp’ attitude of the legislators who signed or approved the loans the executive took in the past few years without understanding the implications for the economy and future generations, Nigeria is now in a debt trap. because the government keeps taking loans from private lenders, deepening the debt crisis and increasing human costs.
Auwal pointed out that “almost twenty years after the buyback deal by the then President Olusegun Obasanjo, from the Paris Club debt relief agreement, Nigeria is in another debt crisis with the inevitable human cost.
“With limited access to more financing in concessional terms and with the large presence and influence of private creditors in its debt profile, Nigeria’s national debt is growing and increasingly putting the country in a precarious position.
He said that “part of the crisis we are experiencing is that when the legislature is new or coming in, they hardly get an orientation and what CISLAC and Christian Aid will do. We will organize an orientation on our debt situation, our economic situation for all the relevant committees when form the committee.
“We have launched a research product that focuses on revealing and challenging the role of private creditors in hindering public recovery in order to increase the urgency of the international community’s need to address the sovereign debt crisis.”
The Senior Program Coordinator, Christian Aid, Uzor Uzoma, explained further that many government loans are done without recourse to the law and worry, the donor parliamentarians read properly to ensure that the provisions of the Constitution on loans are complied with. He advised Nigerians to get their Permanent Voters Cards (PVCs) and vote for deserving leaders in the coming general elections.
“We made a policy and then we went against the same policy that we made and our government signed this document without looking at its contents. We linked the debt to the Gross Domestic Product, (GDP) and it is not accurate because the reality is not done this way. Like now , I heard that President Buhari is still asking for another loan even though he is about to leave office,” he said.
The Program Manager, Tax Justice, Mr. Chinedu Bassey added that “The law is very clear. Sections 34 to 36 of the Fiscal Responsibility Act 2007 define whether the loan should be used and the limits on concessional loans.
“However, a recent development in the Finance Act 2019, part of the law was amended and gave a very ambiguous clause to the previous statement that the loan cannot be used for anything except capital projects that have a tendency to repay the loan. . it is infused that the president has the right to borrow for other reasons.
Nigeria’s net foreign assets have decreased from N7.1 trillion to N4.8 trillion in July 2022, the largest month-on-month decline since 2019 and this appears to be the result of an increase in foreign liabilities such as increased borrowing from the debt market or from direct credit facilities, according to media reports.