Senate President supports FG borrowing splurge, kicks against new taxes

Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, has supported the borrowing splurge of Nigeria, arguing that the Federal Government cannot tax citizens any more to finance infrastructure.

Lawan declared that Nigeria was presently poor and had no other alternative but to borrow to fund infrastructure.

The Senate President, however, stated that the legislature would not be glib in granting Executive’s requests for loans.

Lawan made this known on Thursday in an interview with State House journalists after meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

He declared that loans requests would undergo thorough scrutiny to make sure they were needed, stating that when permitted, the loans would be monitored to guarantee efficient utilisation.

The Senate President added that the National Assembly would deliberate on other equally significant matters such as the President Buhari’s request for loans before going on mid-year vacation.

He said, “We’ll also have the loan request from Mr President. The loan request is to fund the 2021 Appropriation Act and of course, this is not a new request. It’s something that we have passed in the MTEF and it’s something that when we pass the budget 2021, we also passed that.

“What I want to assure Nigerians here is that we are not going to be frivolously supporting or approving loans for the executive arm of government. Our options are really very limited as a country. First, we don’t have the necessary revenues, Nigeria is poor; we shouldn’t deceive ourselves.

“You cannot, in my view and judgment, tax Nigerians further for you to raise the money for infrastructure development. Other countries do that, but we have serious situations across the country; so, you cannot put taxes on people.”