Ndubuisi Orji, Abuja
The Peoples Redemption Party (PRP), on Tuesday, decried the country’s rising debt profile, stating that there is need for the federal government to take urgent steps to reduce the debts.
President Muhammadu Buhari in separate letters to the two chambers of the National Assembly last is seeking the lawmakers approval to borrow $30billion.
However, the National Chairman of the party, Falalu Bello, who spoke at a press briefing in Abuja, said it is unfortunate that the All Progressives Congress (APC) led federal government has nothing concrete to show for the many loans, it has taken since its inception in 2015, yet it I’d seeking to take new loans.
Bello stated that while the President Muhammadu Buhari administration inherited a debt of $10billion in 2015, the country’s debt profiled has increased to about $84 billion dollar within four and half years.
The PRP leader noted that, consequently, debt servicing is taking up a large chunk of the country’s budget, with not much money left for developmental projects.
“When it came into office in 2015 , the government inherited a debt burden of just $10 billion. Today, our country’s debt exposure has spiralled up to about $84 billion. Yet, there is hardly anything on the ground to show for this staggering debt profile.
“This irresponsible profligacy must stop before our country and its present and future generations become indentured slaves.Already, debt servicing is costing us almost half the budget with nothing left for development,” Bello said.
He added that the PRP is against the plan by the government to increase Value Added Tax(VAT), at a time that the country has become” the acknowledged world capital of poverty,”with President admitting that the citizens are facing hardship.
The PRP chairman, while stating that there is need for reduction in the cost of governance in the country, noted that the country does not not need a bicameral legislature.
According to him, “Nigeria is a poor nation and cannot afford a bicameral assembly , paying itself handsomely without any checks on its expenditure…
“The President should honour some of his campaign promises, which included reducing the presidential fleet, cutting the budget of the Presidency as a means of giving him the moral courage and strength to reduce the unnecessary and over bloated wage bill and cost of governance in Nigeria. “