President
Goodluck
Jonathan
on
Wednesday forwarded a letter to the National
Assembly, asking the lawmakers to urgently
approve a $1bn external loan for the Federal
Government to confront the terrorist Islamic sect,
Boko Haram.
The letter dated July 15, 2014, was read on the
floor of the Senate and that of the House of
Representatives on Wednesday, by the Senate
President David Mark and Speaker Aminu
Tambuwal respectively.
In the letter, Jonathan explained that the external
loan was urgently needed to upgrade the
equipment, training and logistics of the Armed
Forces and security services in order to enable
them to confront the insurgents more forcefully.
The letter titled, “Tackling Ongoing Security
Challenges: Need for Urgent Action”, read in part,
“You are no doubt cognisant of the ongoing and
serious security challenges which the nation
is facing , as typified by the Boko Haram terrorist
threat. This is an issue that we have discussed at
various times.
“I would like to bring to your attention the urgent
need to upgrade the equipment, training and
logistics of our Armed Forces and Security
Services to enable them more forcefully to
confront this serious threat.
“For this reason, I seek the concurrence of the
National Assembly for external borrowing of not
more than $1bn, including government to
government arrangements for this upgrade.”
The National Assembly had in the N4.6tn 2014
Budget provisions, appropriated N968.127bn for
Defence on account of the Boko Haram
insurgency.
The request may be considered today (Thursday)
on account of its urgency because both chambers
of the National Assembly may embark on their
annual long recess today till the end of
September 2014.
Also, speaking at the inauguration of the
Theophilus Danjuma-led Victims Support Fund
Committee, the President said he promised
Nigerians that the government would be
victorious in the war against insurgency.
“We owe Nigerians nothing but victory over
terror. The life of every Nigerian is precious and
we will continue to work round the clock to put an
end to this insurgency,” Jonathan said.

www.punchng.com/news/president-seeks-1bn-loan-to-fight-boko-haram/