President Goodluck Jonathan’s request to take an additional foreign loan of $5 billion will return this country back to the horrific days of the international debt trap, members of the House of Representatives declared yesterday. They also voted unanimously to reject the request for permission to take the loan.


Debating a motion on a request for approval of the outstanding 2010 external borrowing plan of the Federal Government forwarded to them by the President, the lawmakers unanimously condemned the move, describing it as “unpatriotic”.



The motion seeking approval for the $4.427 million loan was dropped by Speaker Dimeji Bankole when it became clear that the MPs would unanimously vote against it. Many MPs who spoke said it will drag the nation back into the dark days of high debt profile. They also questioned some of the projects and programs for which some of the funds were meant for.

Chairman of the House Committee on Finance, Rep John Enoh (PDP, Rivers) had informed the House that the nation’s local debt profile stood at 16 billion dollars, and the foreign component was about $4 billion USD billion. He said, “In the last two years our foreign loans have increased by 40 percent while external reserves have dropped by 50 percent.”

For his part, Rep Emmanuel Jimeh (PDP, Benue) said, “It is not the taking of the loan that is bad but the most important thing is the utilisation of the monies collected.” Minority Leader Mohammed Ali Ndume (ANPP, Borno) on his part said, “Nigerians are generally against borrowing. Let us look at the details of the entire request, its merits and demerits before we approve.”

Chairman of the House of Committee on Rules and Business, Rep Ita Enang (PDP, Akwa Ibom) who questioned the planned application of $20 million to development projects for National Agency for the Control of HIV/AIDS said, “At this age, how can we borrow money for AIDS control?”

After a long heated debate, Speaker Bankole put the question for a voice vote as to whether the request be committed to relevant committees of the House for scrutiny, but majority voted against the motion.

Bankole tactically tried to save the request because instead of ruling based on the votes taken, to the surprise of his colleagues, he said, “It is obvious that we need to do more work on this motion,” and stood it down till further notice.

The President had last week written to the House requesting approval for the sum as balance of the 2010 external borrowing plan for the country as part of the $915 million the lawmakers approved for him in April this year.


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