By Luka Binniyat
ABUJA — President Jonathan Good luck, yesterday, wrote the House of Representatives asking for approval to borrow a total sum of $4.42 billion from Development Partners to fund some on-going projects.

Meanwhile, the House, yesterday, agreed to stand-down the Anti-Terrorism bill after it came for consideration during yesterday’s plenary session, due to some major flaws observed in the proposed legislation.

The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Dimeji Bankole, who read the letter on the floor of the House, said he got the letter yesterday from the President.

The President is asking for permission to borrow $2.455 billion for Gas Pipe Line projects among others.
The president in the letter said, “I write to draw your attention to the 2010 External borrowing plan which I forwarded to the National Assembly in April, 2010 for your consideration along with the 2010 budget proposals, which was graciously approved by the Senate and the House resolutions 85 of Tuesday 27th April, 2010 and 92 of Thursday 22nd  April, 201o respectively.

“The borrowing plan was segmented for purposes of comprehension into three broad category namely, projects that had been negotiated and those that were being appraised as well as the pipeline projects/programmes.

The sum total for the negotiated projects stood at $1.854 billion and that of the appraised project was $1,073.2 million while $2.415 billion represented the sum of Pipe line Projects.
“The category of projects come to a total of $5.242 billion.

“You may please recall that in consideration of the 2010 budget in conjunction of the afore-mentioned borrowing plan, the National Assembly graciously approved only the International Development Association, IDA, component of the negotiated projects in the sum of $915 million out of $1,073.2 million for appraised projects and $2.415 billion for pipeline projects the entire balance now remaining for National Assembly’s approval is $4.427billion.

“There is no doubt that the approval given on the component of the negotiated project would impact tremendous on the provision of critical infrastructure which the country is in dire need to jump start the engine of economic growth and improve the living standards of the citizens.”

“Also, it  is pertinent to add that the proposed loans are highly concessionary credit facilities which the country needs to access in order to develop our infrastructure and create employment opportunities.

“ I have directed the Minister of Finance to effectively monitor the various projects to ensure that the funds are judiciously utilized and that there is value for money”, the letter concluded.

On the Anti_Terrorism bill, the Chairman Committee on Justice, Mr Dickson Henry had observed that section 32(1) of the bill confers unfettered powers on the Director General of the State Security Service  (SSS) and his agent to unilaterally determine what constitutes a terrorist organisation and also empowers them to proscribe it.

According to him, “We were under pressure to turn in this report and I must confess that we did not get enough input from the right quarters. We wrote to all the heads of all our security agencies to come up with their contributions on how the bill can effectively empower them to implement the law, but we did not get any of their contribution”.

In his contribution, Hon. Andrew Uchendu also said that in view of the importance of the bill to national security, the bill should be given a thorough touch.

Other speakers concurred, and the Deputy Speaker, Hon. Bayero Nafada, who was presiding over the session, promptly agreed.

He then mandated that the joint committee arrange for a special forum to invite all the Director Generals of all non_uniform security agencies including the Inspector General of Police to get their input.

The Joint Committee comprises of these House Committees: Judiciary, Police, Justice, Drugs and Narcitics, Human Rights, and National Security
The Joint committee is headed by the House Chairman Committee on Police, Hon. Abdul Ningi