Ben Murray-Bruce: "I'm never against loans, but they should be spent exclusively on developing Nigeria not developing our elite."

Monday, October 31, 2016

President Buhari last week forwarded a request to the National Assembly to approve external borrowing plan of $29.960 billion, in order to execute key infrastructural projects across the country between 2016 - 2018. Senator/businessman Ben-Murray Bruce reacted to this via social media, saying if the loan is at the end of the day mismanaged, the youths will not be leaders of tomorrow but future debtors. In his words:

I'm never against taken loans, but they should be spent exclusively on developing Nigeria not developing our elite. We are being told what FG plans to spend the loan on, but how much of those expenditures affect the youths? People of my age won't be the ones to repay this loan. Its the youth who will, repay, so it must benefit them, not us.

We elders must have a rethink. We must think of our youth and ways to bequeath assets to them, not liabilities. Elected officials still earn ridiculously high salaries in the midst of poverty. Let's address that before we borrow. Elected officials still move about in 10-20 car convoys costing hundreds of millions. Let's fix that before borrowing.

We want to borrow $29 billion for our youth to repay back yet not one youth is in the Federal Executive Council. We have not implemented the Orosanye Report and we want to borrow? It will be like pouring water into a basket. Before we pile on debt that our youth will have to repay lets at least plug all areas of waste in our government.

If we don't do the right thing, this loan will turn our youths from leaders of tomorrow to debtors of tomorrow!