Did Senate Recess Cause More Debt For Nigeria?

It seems the non passage of the N22.7 trillion Ways and Means by the Senate before proceeding on a recess has pushed more debt for Nigeria.

The non passage of the Ways and Means may have made Nigeria incur additional N1.8 trillion debt. Nigeria is already faced with a huge debt burden running into billions.

The Ways and Means is a request from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) forwarded to the National Assembly by the presidency.

The Ways and Means is a resource being requested by the CBN to make outstanding payments.

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But the Senate on Wednesday jettisoned the planned final consideration and passage of the N22.7 trillion Ways and Means Restructuring request forwarded to it and the House of Representatives by President Muhammadu Buhari in December, 2022.

The National Assembly is supposed to consider and pass to enable the executive to execute some of its projects.

But the failure by the Senate to pass the N22.7 trillion Ways and Means Restructuring request by President Buhari has put Nigeria at risk of incurring additional N1.8 trillion debt as warned by the President three weeks ago when he assented to the N21.83 trillion 2023 budget.

In jettisoning the request, consideration for it was neither listed on the Order Paper used for plenary on Wednesday nor mentioned by the Senate leader who is the Chairman of the special committee set up for that purpose.

The President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan, had on Tuesday last week, declared that the Senate was ready to approve the request, provided required details of the spendings were made available by the Finance Minister, Zainab Ahmed and CBN Governor Godwin Emefiele.

The duo had earlier failed to provide the details which delayed the consideration.

But when lawmakers resumed plenary, they made efforts at restructuring the N22.7 trillion Ways and Means request, but they failed.

Senate President Ahmad Lawan said the Senate and by extension, the House of Representatives would have adjourned plenary on penultimate week Thursday till after the Presidential and National Assembly election but they waited for the Ways and Means details.

“We must have necessary information for passage of the N22.7 trillion Ways and Means Restructuring request as time is not on our side in the Senate now in view of the coming general elections.

“If there is need for the Senate to sit up to Friday ( last week) for thorough consideration and passage of the request , it will be done but the affected officials from the executive must also expedite action on provision of required information as regards documents authorising approval and disbursement of the monies totalling N22.7 trillion”, Lawan had said.

But the Senator Gobir led committee did not present any report for consideration by the Senate on Tuesday and Wednesday, causing the Senate to adjourn without approving it as earlier planned.

It was gathered that the expected details from the executive arm of government on how the N22.7 trillion was expended within 10 years were not provided.

Nigeria as warned by President Muhammadu Buhari three weeks ago, risks incurring additional N1.8 billion with non – approval of the requested N22.7 trillion Ways and Means Restructuring by the National Assembly.

President Buhari who gave the warning when assenting to the N21.83 trillion 2023 budget had said: “ Balance of N22.7 trillion Ways and Means, has accumulated over several years and represents funding provided by the CBN as lender of last resort to the government to enable it to meet obligations to lenders, as well as cover budgetary shortfalls in projected revenues and/or borrowings.

‘’I have no intention to fetter the right of the National Assembly to interrogate the composition of this balance, which can still be done even after granting the requested approval.

‘’Failure to grant the securitization approval will however cost the government about N1.8 trillion in additional interest in 2023 given the differential between the applicable interest rates which is currently MPR plus 3% and the negotiated interest rate of 9% and a 40 year repayment period on the securitised debt of the Ways and Means”.

Nigerians are now asking: In whose interest did the national assembly go on recess? The lawmakers had over three weeks before the elections, what made them not to complete such an important legislative duty before embarking on the recess? The national assembly which announced earlier that it has completed its legislative agenda must ensure that their decisions and actions benefit the Nigerian people before their tenure end.