THE House of Representatives, on Thursday, expressed outrage at Nigeria’s mounting external debt, stating that the country would soon return to its heavy indebtedness past, given the latest borrowings by the government from the World Bank.

The House, therefore, called on President Umaru Yar’Adua to immediately halt the process of taking further foreign loans, as members complained that the government breached the Act of Debt Management Office (DMO) by failing to consult with the National Assembly before taking the loans.

The House told the Yar’Adua government not to take any further foreign loan without carrying the National Assembly along.

The government had, on Monday, secured a fresh loan of $195 million (about N28,665,000,000) from the World Bank, with an indication that $100 million would be used to combat malaria in the country while the remaining $95 million would be spent on the education sector.

The House said the loans taken by the government had now increased the Nigeria’s debt profile to $3.8 billion, wondering why the government took a loan just to fight malaria.

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A member from Delta State, Honourable Halims Agoda, drew the attention of his colleagues to the new loan through a motion which expressed regret that the present government was in the process of abusing the debt forgiveness, which Nigeria enjoyed from its international creditors in 2005.

Agoda said the reasons given by the government for obtaining the loan amounted to a policy somersault at a time Nigeria should be strengthening its economy by means of proper management of its resources after securing a debt relief from its creditors.

He said it was sad to note that at 49, Nigeria was still at a level in which it must take a foreign loan just to combat malaria, that external loans ought to be programmed for energising the productive sector, and not just to accumulate the country’s foreign debt.

He said the loan did not have a direct bearing on the policy of the government for economic development, expressing regret that most of the loans Nigeria had taken from international creditors were obtained under less than clear situations.

The lawmaker added that Nigeria should not take delight in taking foreign loans, when, according to him, the World Bank was beginning to question the country on the mismanagement of the past loans it had taken.

Nigeria, he added, should focus attention on how to strengthen its tax system, citing the case of Lagos State, which, he said, was generating an average of N14 billion monthly from taxation and which the government had been using it judiciously to the happiness of the taxpayers in the state.

He equally canvassed the strengthening of the private sector, which, according to him, should be the engine room of the nation’s economic growth, while he advised the government to minimise the wastage of resources through inefficiency in loan management and general corruption in the country.

In his contribution, the House Committee Chairman on Education, Honourable Farouk Lawan, recounted the efforts faced by the last government in securing forgiveness for some of its $36 billion, stating that the government should have known better by avoiding further external loans.

Lawan, who was one of the officials who negotiated debt forgiveness for the country, said the huge debt overhand had put Nigeria in a tight corner as it was using one-third of its national budgets just to service mere interest on the outstanding loans then.

The House passed the motion unanimously after more members spoke in the same vein, thus mandating the Joint Committee on Aid, Loan, Debt Management and Justice, to urgently investigate the circumstances surrounding the loans obtained by the Yar’Adua government and the process of utilising the loans.

The committees have two weeks to conclude their assignment, after which they will present a report with recommendations on the next step the House should take.