Senate rejects Buhari’s request to restructure N22tn loan

The Senate on Wednesday rejected the request by the President,Major General Muhammadu Buhari, (retd.), to restructure theN22.7tn Ways and Means advances collected by the FederalGovernment from the Central Bank of Nigeria.

 

The lawmakers rejected the request after an uproar in the Senateover the issue.

 

Buhari had in a letter read on the floor of the Senate on Wednesdaylast week sought for restructuring of the N22.7tn ways and meansadvances collected from CBN within the last ten years in addition toN1tn to be collected as fresh domestic loan.

 

In the letter, he said ways and means were advances from theCentral Bank of Nigeria to the Federal Government for emergencyfunding of delayed receipt of fiscal deficits.

 

However, trouble started when the chairman of the committee,Solomon Adeola (APC Lagos West), was called upon to present areport on it.

 

Some members of the upper legislative chamber were quick to raiseobjections as the Senate leadership attempted to get the report of itsfinance committee, which had recommended that the president’srequest be granted.

 

Senator Betty Apiafi (PDP, Rivers), was the first to rise against itthrough the constitutional point of order, saying ways and means ofexpenditure are not known to the Nigerian constitution.

 

She was, however, ruled out of order by the President of the Senate,Ahmad Lawan, for allowing the report to be presented beforekicking against it.

 

Some of the senators expressed their opposition to the report bygrumbling while it was being presented by Senator Adeola.

 

Senator George Thompson Sekibo, (APC, Rivers State) raised aconstitutional point of order to explain why the ‘ways and means’advances were illegal and unconstitutional.

 

He informed the Senate that the action of the President was also inbreach of the CBN Act, the Senate standing rules, just as it attackedthe privileges of the Senate and National Assembly.

 

Senate President, Ahmed Lawan, attempted severally to get theSenate to accede to the president’s request but it failed because ofthe depth of information and argument adduced by Sekibo.

 

Senator Sekibo cited sections 80, 83, Section1,13(1) of the 1999Constitution, and section  38  of the CBN Act while kicking againstthe request.

 

 

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