$30bn loan: Pres. Buhari needs to borrow to pay contractors, carry out projects- Odigie-Oyegun

Monday, 5 December 2016

APC National chairman, John Odigie-Oyegun, has lent his support to plans by the Federal government to borrow $30 billion from foreign financial institutions. Recall that the proposed plan has been opposed by members of the Senate and some Notable Nigerians including the Emir of Kano and former Central Bank Governor, Muhammad Sanusi II.

However speaking with newsmen at a function in Lagos yesterday, Odigie-Oyegun said the ailing economy can only be revamped by infusing money into it and such money can either be gotten through borrow. According to the APC chief, President Buhari needs to borrow money to pay contractors who have not been paid for as much as 4-10 years, revive the economy.

“If you read the newspapers, you hear the President being advised to pump money into the economy. So the question is where is the money coming from? Simple! It has to come from somewhere including borrowing, both internal and external. To get this country going again, you have to pay contractors. Some contractors have not been paid for 4, 5, 6, 10 years. So long as the borrowing is done not to pay salaries which the President Buhari administration will not do, but invested to create opportunities, solve our problems of power and things like that. To allow people to have money to consume, to buy goods, to pay for services so that factories can produce. So it is that cycle. We must kick-start the economy and to kick-start it will need money, lots of money”he said He also spoke on the anti-corruption campaign of President Buhari “That is a task that must be accomplished because it is at the bottom of all the ills of this country. When you are corrupt, you are immoral, when you are corrupt, you don’t have ethics, when you are corrupt, you lose the distinction between right and wrong. When you are corrupt, even life does not mean anything to you. So, we must get it under serious control for this nation to have hope of making any progress.” he said.