Senator Victor Umeh, who represents Anambra Central, has challenged President Bola Tinubu’s latest request for legislative approval to take on further borrowing, arguing that earlier loans authorised by the National Assembly have not translated into full budget financing.
President Tinubu on Tuesday asked lawmakers to approve new external borrowing of $20.5 billion and €1.04 billion for major infrastructure and development schemes nationwide. The request was contained in a letter presented during Tuesday’s plenary by Senate President Godswill Akpabio.
The President said the proposed foreign loans were required to finance priority infrastructure and development programmes across the country.
But Umeh said the Senate had repeatedly approved government borrowing after being told that the proceeds would support budget implementation, while the budgets concerned had still not been fully funded. Speaking on Channels Television on Tuesday evening, he said lawmakers had authorised numerous borrowing requests under the same explanation, yet budget commitments remained unmet.
He said three budgets were now being implemented at the same time, while the government was failing to settle obligations to contractors and finance capital projects. Umeh questioned what had happened to the funds raised for budget support if they had not been used to meet those commitments, describing it as a concern widely shared by Nigerians.
