Enyinnaya Abaribe, the member of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and Senate minority leader, has revealed why he disagreed with Ahmed Lawan, the president of the Senate over the approval of controversial foreign loan request of the President Muhammadu Buhari.
POLITICS NIGERIA recalls that Mr Abaribe challenged Mr Lawan on the floor of the red chamber over what he tagged “autocratic” approval during the argument of whether the loan is approved or not.
Speaking in an interview with Punch Newspaper, the aggrieved senator said Mr Lawan did not allow members of the Senate to look at different items within the law (borrowing plan) before approving the loan.
“A blanket resolution that every money borrowed will have a multiplier effect, is wrong. I was advocating a line by line interrogation of what was provided for us by the committee and the Senate President felt that the Committee had done its job and that we would either vote for all or won’t vote for any. That was the basis for the disagreement.”
“The Senate President also said that there was an opportunity for you to ask necessary questions during the debate on the second reading of the document instead of trying to do so now that you know it’s not in accordance with the Senate rules.”
Mr Abaribe alleged that many senators do not have much information on the details of the proposed borrowing plan when the issue was debated upon on the floor.
“There was no breakdown at that stage. Details of the borrowing plan and the beneficiaries were brought out when the committee met with the beneficiaries of the loan. During the second reading, most of the details contained in the presentations by the Minister of Finance, heads of the ministries and agencies of government including state governments who would be benefitted from the proposed loans had not been done “, he said. To
