TUC, others blast FG for rising external debt

The Trade Union Congress and civil rights groups have blasted the Federal Government for the rising external debt, which the Debt Management Office put at $9.38bn.

The TUC and other groups, including the Coalition Against Corrupt Leaders and the Civil Society Network against Corruption, said that there was no justification for the rising debt profile.

The TUC, in a statement in Abuja on Sunday by its President, Mr. Bala Kaigama, said that it was alarmed by the rising external debt of the country.

Kaigama cautioned the Federal Government to check its resort to foreign loans before the future of Nigeria is once again mortgaged to foreign creditors.

The Director-General of the DMO, Dr. Abraham Nwankwo, had recently told newsmen in Abuja that the country’s external debt was $9.38bn.

The TUC president expressed worry that while Nigeria celebrated with fanfare the external debt exit in 2005 under the regime of President Olusegun Obasanjo, by December 2010, the external debt portfolio rose to $4.78bn.

He stated, “So, if the foreign debt regime now stands at $9.38 bn, it follows that the external debt profile has risen by about $5bn i.e. about 10 per cent in less than four years.

“This is very unfortunate moreso when the impact of the foreign loans are not being positively felt by the generality of the citizens.

“Nobody should be carried away by the argument that the country’s debt stock is still less than 26 per cent of the GDP, the so-called international standard. The fact of the matter is that the country went through hell when its debt stock was about $35bn. We should, therefore, be concerned that we are going back to where we were before.”

According to the TUC president, although the DMO stated that part of the loan was injected into the power sector, there is nothing on ground to show that electricity supply has improved.

Kaigama recalled that the Minister of Power, Prof. Chinedu Nebo, had stated that Nigeria was generating 3,800MW for about 170 million population.

He added that experts estimated that Lagos State alone needed about 15,000MW.

The TUC President also faulted the claim by the Director-General of the DMO, Dr. Abraham Nwankwo, that part of the loan was used to finance road construction projects, including the Abuja International Airport Road that had not been completed for years.

He urged the labour groups, the civil society groups, and other well -meaning Nigerians to ensure that the Federal Government stopped further foreign borrowing forthwith.

On his part, a Lagos lawyer, Mr. Jiti Ogunye, said there was no justification for the borrowing.

He urged Nigerians to rise up against the government, which he said, by the borrowing, was mortgaging the future of generations unborn.

Ogunye said, “There is no justification for the rising debt profile. They said they are saving through the Sovereign Wealth Fund. Will the borrowing not cancel out the savings?

“There is no justification for the borrowing, but the government is using the worst argument of economics to justify the rising debt profile. They are mortgaging the future of this country.”

The National Coordinator of the CSNAC, Mr. Olanrewaju Suraj, condemned the rising debt profile in the face of the depleting nation’s foreign reserve.

He said, “The foreign reserve is depleting at an unprecedented rate and the debt locally is accumulating on an imaginable rate.

“It is also sad that as the debt profile is rising, you really can’t see substantial projects going on across the country. It would have been another thing if the debt profile is rising and there are things on ground to also mitigate the impact, but that is not the situation.”

He said the implication of the trend was that if President Goodluck Jonathan failed to win the 2015 presidential election, the incoming government would find it difficult to deliver on its electoral promises.

Also, the Executive Chairman of CACOL, Mr. Debo Adeniran, said the government’s justification of the rising debt profile on the rebased Nigerian economy was hypocritical.

He added that the money that was being borrowed by government was not being used to execute projects for the development of the people.

He said, “It is hypocritical on the part of the government to say that they are making progress and to bank on the acclaimed rebasing of the Nigerian economy.

“We have raised it that it does not translate to development. Okonjo-Iweala, who claimed she bailed Nigeria from the stranglehold of debt is the one borrowing here and there to execute projects that are not in consonance with the needs of the people.

“They are not borrowing to implement projects or policies for the development of the people.”