₦airaland Forum

FURORE OVER ALLEGED EXCLUSION OF SOUTH EAST, EDO FROM $22.7B LOAN
The Guardian, 9th March 2020

Except they are reconsidered, the entire South East geopolitical zone as well as Edo State may not benefit from the controversial $22.7b loan approved by the Senate last Thursday.

It was gathered that the exclusion of the south east and Edo State, which is already generating a furore, is a fallout of what has been described as the dirty politics that preceded the approval of the loan request which President Mohammadu Buhari presented twice to the National Assembly and eventually got approved by the Senator Ahmed Lawan-led ninth Senate.

The eighth Senate under Bukola Saraki had rejected the loan on the grounds of lack of details.

But last week, the Senate ignored all requests to allow for debate on the details of the loan and approved the document amidst protest and uproar.

Buhari had said that the loan was to “ensure the prompt implementation of projects under the borrowing plan with special emphasis on infrastructure, agriculture, health, education, water supply, growth and employment generation, poverty reduction through social safety net programmes, governance and financial management reforms, among others.”

Details of the loan, as approved by the Senate, showed that the South West got $200,000,000.00 while the South South, excluding Edo State, got $4,270,000,000.00. The South East which produced 15 of the 109 senators got nothing from the loan.

And more shocking is the fact that the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Local and Foreign Debts, Clifford Ordia, which processed the loan request and recommended its approval, represents Edo Central.

However, the North West, which produced President Buhari, got $6,372,000,000.00 just as the North East got $300,000,000.00 while the North Central got $6,531,000,000 and $5,853,900,000.00 was reserved for general expenses.

In more specific details, the power transmission project in Lagos and Ogun states were given $200 million just as $800m was voted for the East west road in the Niger Delta.

The coastal railway project (Calabar-Port Harcourt-Onne deep sea port segment got $3.47billion (Cross River and Rivers states.)

Projects in the North East that were covered in the loan are the multi-sectoral crises recovery programme ($200m, north-east), North-east Nigeria integrated social protection, basic health, education, nutrition services and livelihood restoration project ($100m); and the Lake Chad Basin Commission ($13m, multinational).

In the North West, the following projects were captured by the loan:
“Kano-Lagos railway modernisation project (Kano-Ibadan segment double track, $5.53billion; and vocational training in power sector ($50m; FCT, Lagos, Ogun. Kano, Plateau, Niger, Enugu, Kaduna and Cross River).

Others are: Kaduna State economic transformation programme for results ($35m, Kaduna); National Information and Communication Technology Infrastructural Backbone Project (NICTIB) phase II ($328.1m (Lagos, Abuja, Ibadan, Akure, Maiduguri, Lokoja, Kaduna, Akwanga, Bauchi, Kano, Katsina); Health System Project ($110m, Katsina); Rural water supply and sanitation ($150m; north-east, and Plateau); and development of the mining industry ($150m, nationwide).

In the North Central, these projects were covered: Staple crops processing zone support project ($100m, Kogi); Greater Abuja water supply project ($381m, FCT); Abuja mass rail transit project (phase 2) ($1.25b, FCT); Mambila hydro-electric power project ($4.8b; and Taraba integrated programme for development and adaption to climate change in the Niger Basin ($6m)

It was gathered that only 60 per cent of the loan would be available for spending as 40 per cent is to be paid to those who offered consultancy services regarding the loan.

The source disclosed that although the Federal Government was aware that the remaining 60 per cent would not be enough for the projects for which the loan was sought, it had insisted on getting it loan because it intended to seek a second loan later in the year.

“A request for the second loan would soon be sent to the National Assembly, “ the source said.

Lawan had during his heated argument with the Senate Minority Leader, Eyinnaya Abaribe, before the approval of the loan insisted that the recommendation of the committee should be taken and adopted. Abaribe had also insisted that debate on the loan be on project by project basis.

In the politics that played out shortly after the inauguration of the 9th Senate, the PDP caucus had replaced Clifford Ordia with Sahabi Yau from Zamfara State as Senate deputy minority whip, a development, which was very unpleasant to Ordia.
Since then, it was learnt that the PDP caucus had never found it easy to prevail on Ordia to do its bidding.

As the development generates furore, the apex Igbo socio-cultural organization, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, said yesterday that it would investigate the allegations that the southeast zone was excluded from the $22.7 billion loan.

It said should the report be true, it would mean that Nigeria was on her way to implosion, as Ndigbo would resist the exclusion.

The group said it seriously doubted if Federal Government could contemplate excluding the zone.

The Deputy National Publicity Secretary of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Mazi Chuks Ibegbu, said: “We have to be sure the story is true. If it is true then the Senate should reverse itself because it is not right. It does not make for development, peace and unity. If it is true, it means Nigeria is on the road to implosion. It is no longer a united country. We will investigate the veracity in the story we are hearing.”

SOURCE:
https://guardian.ng/news/furore-over-alleged-exclusion-of-south-east-edo-from-22-7b-loan/

It's Obvious they don't mean well for Nigeria as regards that loan, the Money isn't evenly distributed, its only in the region that it will be well Looted

Nackzy:
It's Obvious they don't mean well for Nigeria as regards that loan, the Money isn't evenly distributed, its only in the region that it will be well Looted

Already 40% of it is looted as "consultancy fees"

Then seeing the left over 60% isn't enough, Buhari will seek another loan later this year, so the article says.

How can 40% of a loan be set aside as consultancy fees ? 40% !! not 4% ?

The APC senators in the SE are useful idiots

I wouldn't blame Buhari for exclusion of South East and Edo from the largese....
The man is a certified nepotic dullard

But rather the south east senators ... Who are all useless to the region...
They are all there for their own selfish gains and share of the national cake...

Why not simply stage a walk out...?
Let it be known that south east is no longer represented at the assembly...
Let it be known that south East is no longer part of Nigeria...

May be the SE politicians decided to take their shares in cash instead of development

It's simple.

Cos we have 15 clowns representing us.

GeorgeTheCoder:
How can 40% of a loan be set aside as consultancy fees ? 40% !! not 4% ?

Ignore the habitual liar, he has many monicker he's using to spread that lies on Nairaland

meavox:
Already 40% of it is looted as "consultancy fees"

Then seeing the left over 60% isn't enough, Buhari will seek another loan later this year, so the article says.

No one is buying your propaganda here little PDP mole

And we have SE Sinators and Rapepresentatives in Nass

ZombiePUNISHER:
I wouldn't blame Buhari for exclusion of South East and Edo from the largese....
The man is a certified nepotic dullard

But rather the south east senators ... Who are all useless to the region...
They are all there for their own selfish gains and share of the national cake...

Why not simply stage a walk out...?
Let it be known that south east is no longer represented at the assembly...
Let it be known that south East is no longer part of Nigeria...

I agree completely with you here.

Buhari is a lost case. I mean, that he is a wicked nepolistic irrdentist is well known.

But what of SE politicians who are in power? By now, no Senator or HOR from the SE should be attending the national assrmbly sittings. No Gov should visit Abuja for any meeting. Thry should all boycott the Govt at the centre.

If they do so for just a week and everyone know they are serious, the cowards at the centre will buckle. And they will never try to belittle a wholr region again.

Cos how in the hell will the country take a loan of a whopping $22bn and none of that money will be spent in an entire region yet that region will be required to pay the loan when the time comes.

They are do to you what you allow them to.

SE is cursed with useless leaders.

Afamed:
Ignore the habitual liar, he has many monicker he's using to spread that lies on Nairaland

I doubt it is a lie. This info is all over the internet.

GeorgeTheCoder:
I doubt it is a lie. This info is all over the internet.

Those are the same set of people spreading the same fake news. 40% as consultant fee? Ask yourself if a govt needs a consultant to borrow money from any bank in the world

[s]

Afamed:
Those are the same set of people spreading the same fake news. 40% as consultant fee? Ask yourself if a govt needs a consultant to borrow money from any bank in the world

[/s]

[s]

Afamed:
Ignore the habitual liar, he has many monicker he's using to spread that lies on Nairaland

[/s]

[s]

Afamed:
No one is buying your propaganda here little PDP mole

[/s]

And we are meant to pay for the loan as well? Like seriously.


Nnamdi Kanu is truly a prophet and a true leader.

We need to all start to ask for Biafra now or our great-grandchildren will continue to fight the legacy that we are postponing