$5.5bn loan: PDP says World Bank’s warning confirmed its fears

The Peoples’ Democratic Party has said that the warning by the World Bank on the danger inherent in the continued borrowing by the present administration for purportedly for funding of the national expenditures confirmed its fears that the future of unborn generations is being mortgaged by the Federal Government.
The party had said the plan to obtain a fresh $5.5 billion foreign loan would drive Nigeria into further debt.
In a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Dayo Adeyeye, the PDP said that instead of looking inwards and developing the nation’s resources for a sustainable revenue flow, the Federal Government has persisted in plunging the future of the country into uncertainty through the evil of unbridled borrowing.
The statement says “As a Political Party that was in power for 16 years; that worked assiduously to take the Nation out of debt, we are appalled at the rate the Government of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has been stacking debt for the future generations without any corresponding infrastructural development in the Country to justify the Huge Borrowing .
“We wish to remind Nigerians that as a Party with foresight, we raised the alarm against the plan by President Muhammadu Buhari led Government to borrow another $5.5 billion for another bogus infrastructural developmental projects, but the Government considered our patriotic complaints as mere politicking.
“Not minding the Genuineness of our advice to the Government, the Minister for Finance, Kemi Adeosun speaking for President Buhari’s Administration, insisted that the Government must, and will continue to borrow before it could fund projects listed in the budget.
“However, our altruistic position on the evil of unbridled borrowing by the Government has been confirmed by the World Bank which has issued a caveat to the Government of the APC, not to borrow and plunge the Future of this Country into uncertainty.
“Issuing the warning through its Senior Economist, Mrs Gloria Joseph-Raji on Monday in Abuja, the World Bank stated clearly that the Cost of borrowing or paying interest on Nigeria’s debt was not sustainable as revenues to make such payment had dried up.
“The World Bank stated unequivocally that the Country’s Debt to revenue ratio which stood at 35 per cent in 2015 has grown to 60 per cent by 2016, reflecting a reduction in government revenues and rising debt profile; thereby raising a question about the debt sustainability.
“What more can we say? We knew the Situation was bleak under this APC Administration and we made our worries public, but the nonchalant APC Government has refused to see the danger ahead.
“We wish to refer all Nigerians to the Debt Profile of the Nation under the President Buhari Administration which has just been released. We are sure that nobody will agree that the Government should borrow a kobo anymore in the Name of Funding the Nation’s Budget.
“In the light of this, we wish to reiterate our call and plea on the National Assembly to consider the plight of our unborn children and reject the request for the $5.5 billion loan by the administration. We owe our unborn children the duty not to cripple them before they are born.
“We know that rather than heed our patriotic warning, the APC will as usual, resort to the only thing they know how to do best – the Blame Game. In the absence of any coherent, logical, positive and purposeful policies, Programs and agenda, that is not entirely surprising.”