…calls on anti-corruption watchdogs to beam searchlight on public spending

By Gabriel Ewepu

THE Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre, CISLAC, weekend, kicked against $800 million loan the Buhari-led administration wants to take from the World Bank as palliative to cushion impact of the proposed subsidy removal by June 2023.

This was contained in a statement signed by the Executive Director, CISLAC, Auwal Rafsanjani

Rafsanjani described the move by Buhari as strange on the heels of funding fuel subsidy removal palliatives.

The statement reads in part, “If the fuel subsidy removal process has been suspended as announced by the Minister of Finance after the NEC meeting at the end of April, then the government should return the borrowed money because what are we taking the loan for?

“In 2022, Nigeria paid about N7 trillion in fuel subsidy and in 2023 from January to June when the country intends to stop paying the subsidy is N3.6 trillion so if we are paying such whopping amount of money when subsidy is removed, we should have enough savings instead of taking additional loans, we can use the subsidy funds for post fuel subsidy removal.

“As a matter of fact, we don’t need to borrow. What we need to do is to cut waste. Just recently, we all saw the aviation minister announced that he bought 10 fire fighting trucks for over 12 billon naira. Is this what we are borrowing to spend on?

“Also, we read that the Minister of Communication and Digital Economy announced the approval of 24.2 billion to provide internet facilities at airports and some institutions amongst other places. These are the things we are spending on few weeks before the end of this administration and this is unacceptable.”

The CISLAC boss also condemned unnecessary spendings with few weeks of the Buhari-led administration, and described it as  reckless spending.

He said it is suspicious as most government officials are taking advantage to divert public funds for personal interest and not for the overall good of the country.

“What is the need for acquiring fighter trucks towards the end of an administration a position you have held for over eight years but you find no need to acquire the trucks until the end, this is a clear sign of contracts scams that doesn’t follow due process and public interest it is simply a financial recklessness.

“And Nigeria as a nation that is so swamped up in debts we can’t afford that right now because where’s the public interest in that elephant project.

“Also the Minister of Communications have gone ahead to get an approval of FEC for N24.2bn for internet access at airports and universities but this are services that naturally should be done by service providers.

 “Nigeria is already in another debt trap. Records from both national and international financial and debt institutions regarding Nigeria’s debt reveal a state in crisis.”

However, he called on the financial watch-dogs of the country to beam searchlight on public spendings that have not followed procurement process.