Nigeria Is Broke —Senate President

The President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan, says Nigeria will keep borrowing to fund critical infrastructures because the country is broke.

Lawan who made this known on Thursday while interacting with State House correspondents after meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, said Nigeria is currently poor and had no other option, but to borrow to finance critical sectors of the economy.

The Senate President, however, insisted that the legislature would not be frivolous in granting Executive’s requests for loans, adding that when permitted, the loans would be monitored to ensure effective use.

He also assured that the National Assembly would deliberate on other equally important matters such as the President’s request for loans before vacating for the summer.

“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.”