By Ben Agande & Inalegwu Shaibu
ABUJA—The Senate Wednesday  failed to approve the request by President Goodluck Jonathan to borrow $3.702 billion to develop the power sector, following observations by senators that it was unclear.

Senate President, David Mark, while presiding over the final request of the 2010 external borrowing plans of the Federal Government, despite affirming its importance, directed the Senate Committees on Finance and National Planning to do more work on the loan before any approval could be granted.

He said: “No country can survive without borrowing, especially when it is soft loan. I think the main thing is for us to intensify our monitoring. There are other projects that will benefit our government.”

Majority of the senators were opposed to the request after describing it as frivolous and an avenue by state governments to loot the treasury.

The senators were skeptical of the proposals by  Oyo and Taraba State governments requesting the Senate’s approval to borrow $83 million for institutional reform and capacity building.

Senator Lee Maeba, PDP, Rivers, who was opposed to the loan request, urged the Senate not to approve it, saying it will amount to borrowing to serve individual interests rather than national.

“If you look at what some state governments are asking for, I mean $83 billion for institutional reform and capacity building, you can see that this money is going to disappear to somewhere.

“External borrowing should be for projects with value and not for institutional reform. We are in dilemma if we approve this loan. I object to the borrowing and my stand is that if we insist on borrowing, it should be targeted at project with value,” he said.

Senator Umar Hambagda, ANPP, Borno, who also kicked against the approval said it will amount to returning to old days when there was a drag in national development due to high indebtedness of Nigeria foreign countries.

Senator Hambagda argued, “A debtor is a slave, the person you borrow from is your master. Borrowing led us to crisis, our domestic debt is about $29 billion and we still wan to borrow again. By the time we start spending borrowed money without result, there will be problem.”

But Senator Patrick Osakwe who was in support of the government borrowing plans termed it as free money that will be good for national development.

He said, “Borrowing as a concept, I do not see anything wrong in it. To borrow money, you have to look at the term and if you look at the term of this money, it looks like free money.

The term is so enticing. We should grant this request especially as it explains where it is needed. The loan is necessary for the running of this country.”