Some members of the National Assembly are divided over whether or not the $1bn loan request made by President Goodluck Jonathan should be approved by the lawmakers.
Jonathan had on Wednesday sent a letter to the National Assembly, asking the lawmakers to exigently approve the external loan for the Federal Regime to confront Boko Haram insurgency.
He verbalized the external loan would be habituated to upgrade the equipment of the armed forces and the training of personnel.
Senator Magnus Abe (APC, Rivers State), in an interview with SUNDAY PUNCH on Friday, verbally expressed he was not against the approbation of the imprest for the President.
He, however, verbalized Jonathan should be able to account for the mazuma relinquished so far to fight the insurgents.
Abe verbally expressed, “My opinion all along over the funding of military operation against insurgency has been that Nigerians should not be exorbitant fascinated with the amount of mazuma being voted to execute the war. Rather, what should interest Nigerians is whether we are achieving the objective abaft the relinquishment of the mazuma.
“I have nothing against the relinquishment of mazuma to fight insurgency but President Goodluck Jonathan should satiate himself and Nigerians that the amount of mazuma so far relinquished for the anti-terrorism activities had been judiciously utilised.
“It will be a very doleful development if it turned out at the terminus of the day that $1bn being requested for the President was diverted to politics or that some people in regime optically discerned it as an opportunity to amass wealth at the instance of the vulnerably susceptible, poor Nigerians whose lives and property are being wasted whenever the dreaded sect unleashes terror.”
On his component, Senator Babafemi Ojudu verbally expressed the request by the President was “not desirable and conspicuously, not justifiable.”
He verbalized, “As a country, sizably voluminous sums of mazuma have been voted for defence since the inception of the Jonathan administration and an immensely colossal percentage of the mazuma, I believe, had been channelled to wage war against Boko Haram. The question is, have we been able to justify the utilisation of the mazuma?”
Ojudu verbalized he was a component of the team that went to Borno State few weeks ago on a fact-finding mission.
According to him, the state regime told the team that an immensely colossal percentage of its monthly allocation was being deducted by the Federal Regime to fight insurgency.
“I am very sure the Senate will approve the mazuma but how are we sure it is not a component of the mazuma that would be utilised to prosecute the 2015 general elections by the Peoples Democratic Party, which is the ruling party in the country,” he verbally expressed.
Another senator, Kabiru Marafa, verbalized he would not mind approving the imprest, if it would avail in ending the insurgency.
He verbalized, “There is no amount of mazuma spent to bring placidity and tranquillity to our troubled nation that is an extravagant amount of or too minute. I do not even mind if we spent the entire budget or empty the Central Bank of Nigeria to culminate insurgency in our country. But we must be sincere in the application of the mazuma for the purport for which it was relinquished.
“We all ken the complaints of the military personnel on ground at the three north-eastern states. They had alleged that their welfare was not being adequately taken care of by those charged to do so.
“If President Goodluck Jonathan is sincerely probing for that mazuma to carry out military activities that will instaurate tranquility to Nigeria, no right-cerebrating citizen of this country will contravene it. I optate him to maintain his stand on it because I ken some of his advisers may suggest its diversion for political use and if that transpires, we are in trouble in this country.”
Also, Senator Chris Ngige verbally expressed he would require more details on the imprest. These, he verbalized, would avail the Senate in considering it.
He verbally expressed, “For instance, we require to ken the terms of the imprest, whether it is interest-free or not. We must ken the terms for repayment. All these pieces of information are not kenned, so we don’t have the details.
“We additionally need to ken what percentage will go to procurement of more arms and equipment; the percentage that will go to personnel capacity building and the percentage that will be allocated to the Army, Navy, Airforce, the Department of State Security, the Police and other security outfits.
“I am additionally cerebrating the entire mazuma is not denoted for the military operations alone. We must ken how much is being set aside to take care of the gregarious, economic and religious impact of the insurgency because terrorism is like ulcer which takes time to rejuvenate,” Ngige integrated.
In the House of Representatives, some members additionally expressed opposing views over the President’s bid.
The House Deputy Majority Leader, Mr. Leo Ogor, applauded Jonathan’s decision as an indispensable step he took to ascertain that “adequate pieces of equipment are provided for our Armed Forces.”
Ogor, a PDP lawmaker from Delta State, verbalized nobody expected Nigerian soldiers to confront members of the sect and vanquish them if they did not have enough equipment.
He additionally verbalized that no amount of mazuma was an extravagant amount of to spend on security, if doing so would renovate normalcy to the North-East.
Ogor integrated, “What is the alternative if we don’t want the regime to spend? We are fighting a war that is alien to us; we have to be plenarily prepared.
“It is consummately nonessential to politicise this issue when the lives and property of Nigerians are involved.”
However, House Minority Whip, Mr. Sampson Osagie, faulted Ogor’s position on the grounds that the legislature approved N1tn in this year’s budget just three months ago for the same reasons of equipping and training security personnel.
Osagie, an All Progressives Congress legislator from Edo State, argued that until Jonathan expounded how the $1bn would be utilised differently from the N1tn already approved in the 2014 budget, “then, there are clouds of suspicion.”
He integrated, “Is the President borrowing the mazuma to fund the N1tn budgeted for security in 2014? He has a plethora of explication to make.”
Osagie, who described the request as “laughable”, additionally verbally expressed he was suspicious of Jonathan’s motive for making such request in a pre-election year.
He recalled that prior to the 2011 general elections, government’s expenditure on fuel subsidy rose to “over N1tn”, raising suspicions that substantial part of the mazuma might have been utilized for electioneering.
“It is highly suspicious because we are approaching elections and this type of derisory request is peregrinated.
“Why can’t regime cut down on the many areas of waste in governance and preserve funds in lieu of resorting to external borrowing?
“Do we even ken how much precisely we are owing as a nation?
“I consummately oppose this loan”, Osagie integrated.
The Chairman, House Committee on Justice, Mr. Ali Ahmad, too did not spare the President.
Ahmad noted that “25 per cent” of the 2014 budget was earmarked for security.
He verbalized, “We can’t visually perceive what they have done with the mazuma because nothing has ameliorated.
“Upgrading equipment and training Armed Forces personnel are not incipient issues; we approved N1tn in the budget for security.
“My position is that the military should emerge and tell us how they have spent the 25 per cent of the budget we voted for security.”
Some civil rights groups additionally kicked against the external loan.
A United Kingdom-predicated political and public affairs commentator, Mr. Stephen Dieseruvwe, verbally expressed the President should tell Nigerians how security votes had been spent.
He verbalized, “I can tell you without mincing words that Nigerians are very exasperated about your posture on the fight against corruption and terrorism. Nigerians are getting to a breaking point, and I visually perceive it as a time bomb for a bloody disintegration of the geographical expression called Nigeria.”
But, an anti-corruption attorney and civil rights activist, Mr. Ugochukwu Osuagwu, verbalized he fortified the imprest.
Osuagwu verbally expressed, “The Nigerian Army has attributed its inability to tackle the Boko Haram insurgency to dearth of mazuma. N845 billion was budgeted for defence in 2014 and Army got just N4.8 billion this year so far. If the $1billion being sought is for the Army and other security agencies to fight Boko Haram, then it is justifiable.
“The Boko Haram guys are very potent and we require to curtail them afore they penetrate the South. Otherwise, they can wipe out Nigeria. I fortify the imprest, provided it is designated to declare war on Boko Haram in the North and other components they are located.”
