…… Queries FG Over $2.1b World Bank Loan
The opposition party, the Peoples’ Democratic Party has derided President Muhammadu Buhari’s ineptitude and lack of direction to govern the nation saying he has failed to learn anything from his ‘fruitless’ journey to the United States.
The PDP also said they are in possession of information that the Presidency acting alone, has gone into discussions with the World Bank for a loan of $2.1 bn for purposes unknown to Nigerians.
At a media briefing in Abuja on Sunday, the PDP’s National Publicity Secretary, Olisa Metuh, said events after Buhari’s visit to the US indicated that neither the President nor his party, the All Progressives Congress, had learnt anything from the trip.
He asked, “What is the loan for? What are the terms and who are those working the papers? Who are the people to decide on how the money will be spent? Is it true that the $2.1bn loan is meant to pay back huge contributions for the APC Presidential campaign expenses?
“If truly this government is transparent, it should come out clear on this loan as well as publicise details of its expenditure in the last two months.”
“Now that the visit has come and gone, our fear is that nothing whatsoever has been learnt or gained.
“What we continue to receive as a nation have been embarrassing disagreements, accusations and counter-accusations, blames and denials on very important issues due to lack of tact and skill in the management of state matters by the APC-led administration.
“It is disheartening that rather than secure any sort of tangible gain for the fight against terrorism, which has lost steam under the APC watch, with insurgents, who were pushed to the verge of surrender by the Goodluck Jonathan administration, now surging back and spreading into the country, we get nothing but exchanges and disagreements between the Presidency and their American hosts.
“This is not only embarrassing but also a worrisome indication of crass ineptitude in the handling of international affairs on the part of the present administration.”
While agreeing that the President has the right to decide those to be on his entourage on such an important official visit, he nevertheless said that the way Buhari allegedly shamed and walked out Nigerian businessmen had sent a wrong signal to international investors and posed great threats to inflow of direct foreign investments into the country.
“These Nigerian businessmen were rejected by their President only for them to be valued by other Presidents of African nations who led them into a meeting with President Barrack Obama in their own countries on account of their investments in those nations,” he added.
Metuh said that since the President had insisted on running his government as a sole administrator, making important decisions on national affairs without recourse to relevant statutory arms and organs of government, the PDP was being compelled to demand that the administration publish its expenses since assumption of office in May, in keeping with its much harped stance on transparency.
“We make this demand because since the APC took office, the nation’s financial system in the absence of statutory functionaries has been enmeshed in confusion, controversy and fertile atmosphere for financial sleazes,” he added.