Falana to FG: $30bn loan will jeopardise destiny of future generations

Femi Falana, human rights activist and Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), has called on the federal government to shelve its plan to borrow $29.960 billion to execute key projects across the country.

He said the government would be putting the collective destiny of the younger generation in jeopardy should be loan be secured.

President Muhammadu Buhari recently sought the approval of the National Assembly to borrow the said loan from the World Bank.

Falana, while speaking at the 2016 annual general conference of Committee for Defence of Human Rights (CDHR) in Lagos on Saturday, urged the federal government to source for funds locally.

The lawyer, who’s a former president of CDHR, said the government should use recovered loot and go after chronic debtors to fund its projects.

He said: “We hear that the federal government wants to borrow $29 billion to fund the economy, my advice is we do not need to do this at such a period in our economy.

“What about the millions of the recovered loots from those who stole our money, our money that are in the hands of those who decided to steal from the treasury?

“I have a report from Nigeria Extractive Transparency Initiative, NEITI which states that the oil companies and NNPC are owing the federal government a joint $20.2b.

“All these should be recovered and used for these projects instead of putting the destiny of the younger generation and those to come in jeopardy as a result of the huge national debt it will bring.”