OPINION: LAWAN IS JUST A ‘RUBBER’ WAITING TO STAMP ANYTHING, BY YEMI ADEBOWALE

Watching the President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan, on television on Monday, affirming that the red chamber would approve the $29.96 billion loan request of President Muhammadu Buhari, left me so muddled.Lawan persistently spoke as if he was one of the aides of Buhari.

He did not sound one bit like he is heading another arm of government. Since his assumption of office, Lawan has been thinking and acting as if he is part of the Executive.

On this loan request, I was expecting him to talk about a thorough scrutiny of the request by the Senate. He did not do this. Even before senators commenced debate on the request, Lawan had already approved it. Haba! It means the views of other senators no longer matter.

This President of the Senate, who has now become an autocrat in the Red Chamber, declared, “The question of whether we will approve the loan request of the Executive arm of Government? Yes, we will pass it.” Few weeks back, this President of the Senate shot down some members who requested for copies of the amendments to the Value Added Tax, before the First reading. Senators did not see the document before it jumped the first and second reading.

Fanatical Lawan no longer understands the concept of check and balance in a democracy. He is unconscious that we are running a constitutional government and that check and balance must apply. Yes, the legislature does not exist to antagonise the Executive. However, it must effectively and efficiently check the Executive, else, there will be absolutism, as we are now experiencing in Nigeria. The system of check and balance is an important part of our Constitution. With check and balance, each of the three branches of government can limit the powers of the others. Each branch checks the power of the other branches to make sure that the power is balanced among them.

Under just six months of Lawan, power has tilted absolutely in favour of the Executive. The principle of check and balance has been thrown into the garbage can. No wonder Lawan said he would do anything Buhari requests of him in the Senate. For him, the loan request is a done deal.

He cares less if this generation, and indeed, generation yet unborn, would be plunged into stifling debt repayment. The list of foreign borrowing by the Buhari government is growing. There is a $1 billion African Development Bank loan. There is a $1 billion Eurobond, with an additional $500 million expected from the Global Medium Term Note Programme. There is a $5.8 billion from the China Exim bank. Over 30 per cent of the 2020 budget will be funded with foreign loans. As at June 30, this year, the federal government is gasping under a debt yoke of N20.42 trillion – local and foreign. Over 30 per cent of federal revenue will go into debt servicing in 2020.

The Emir of Kano, Muhammadu Sanusi II was right when, two years ago, he urged the federal government to slow down on its borrowing because it was spending such a huge part of its revenues to pay interests on debts. The Emir remarked: “The Federal Government of Nigeria is spending 66 per cent of its revenues on interests on debts, which means only 34 per cent of revenues is available for capital and recurrent expenditures. That model cannot work. If you look at the 2017 budget of the Federal Government, I sometimes wonder what Nigerian economists are doing?

In the 2017 budget, the amount earmarked for debt servicing is in excess of the entire non-oil revenue of the Federal Government, but that is not the problem. The problem is that it is a budget that is even going for more debts. “Borrowing has reached its limit and government should therefore look for ways to attract investments. Growth can only come from investments. It cannot come from consumption. It cannot come from government balance sheet. It cannot come from borrowing because you cannot borrow unsustainably.” So, what has the masses of this country gained from this massive borrowing in terms of infrastructure and poverty alleviation? Honestly, I don’t think we have gained anything; not with the hunger, disease, poverty, unemployment and decay ravaging the country. Just look around you and you will see the level of decay in virtually all sectors of our economy – health, education, water, roads, power, security and the rest of them. The way our governments at all levels celebrate these loans often leave me dejected. They create the impression that it would be a quick fix for all our problems. Unfortunately, it does not turn out that way. Just imagine that $1 billion Eurobond sale being turned into an achievement. The oversubscription to the tune of $ 7.8 billion at an interest rate of 7.88% was celebrated as if we are getting free money.

For those who don’t know, by the time this country exits this bond, we would have conservatively paid an additional $1 billion as interest. The interest could go higher as the Naira plummets. So, they have simply pushed Nigeria to continue wallowing in more debt. The burden on our star-crossed generation and indeed future generation is weighty. A huge part of the revenue that the federal government ought to be using for poverty alleviation and infrastructural development has been going into debt servicing. Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar was apt when he said President Buhari was trying to ruin the future of Nigerians with this $29.96 billion loan request: “The fact that Nigeria currently budgets more money for debt servicing (N2.7 trillion), than we do on capital expenditure (N2.4 trillion) is already an indicator that we have borrowed more money than we can afford to borrow. And the thing is that debt servicing is not debt repayment. “Debt servicing just means that we are paying the barest minimum allowable by our creditors. And while spending 50% of our current revenue on debt servicing, this administration wants to take further loans of $29.6 billion! To say that this is irresponsible is itself an understatement. President Olusegun Obasanjo and I paid off this nation’s debt, and I will not stand idly by and watch while Nigeria is plunged into second slavery by those who only know how to reap where they have not sown.”

Lawan and his cohorts care less. They want Nigeria to sustain the binge borrowing. The President of the Senate must show allegiance to Nigerians and not to Buhari. Our Senators must also show fidelity to traumatised Nigerians, snub Lawan and throw away this filthy loan request.

Ring true By Yemi Adebowale, Phone number: 07013940521, Email: yemi.adebowale@thisdaylive.com