Federal Govt, Others Sued Over $800m World Bank Loan

A human rights lawyer, Abdulganeey Imran has urged a Federal High Court in Lagos to restrain the federal government from obtaining an additional loan of $800,000,000 or any other sum to finance the National Social Safety Network Programme, (NASSP).

Imran is also asking the court to grant in the alternative an order restraining the president from sharing, distributing, tampering with or dealing with any such loan of $800,000,000 already given to the respondents in any manner whatsoever.

Joined alongside the president in the suit, which has been assigned to Justice Peter Lifu, is the attorney general of the federation and minister of justice, Abubakar Malami, SAN and the Senate President.

President Muhammadu Buhari had sought approval from the House of Representatives for a new $800 million loan to finance the National Social Safety Network Programme (NSSNP).

The request was contained in a letter read by the speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, to lawmakers at the resumption of plenary. Recall that the president made a similar request to the Senate last week, a development that generated outcry.

But, the lawyer in suit number FHC/L/C5/908/23  brought under Order 3 Rule 9 of the Federal High Court Civil Procedure Rules 2009, and Section 59, 80, 81, 135 of the Constitution, urged the court to restrain the first Respondent (President) from seeking the additional loan of $800,000,000 or any other sum at all, to finance the National Social Safety Network Programme, which is purportedly meant to be shared and transferred at the rate of N5,000 per month to 10.2 million poor and low-income households.

The applicant also urged the court to direct the Respondents to remit the said sum of $800 million back to the federation account of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and for such further order as the court may deem fit to make in the circumstance.

$800m Loan: SERAP Plans Legal Action Against World Bank  

He premised his request on the fact that the tenure of the present administration of President Muhammad Buhari seeking to obtain ‘this whopping sum of money’ comes to an end on the 29 days of May 2023, which means that he has less than nine working days to the end of its administration and is therefore absolutely impossible for any serious minded administration, especially the 3rd Respondent (Senate President) to commence the process of obtaining  such loan, scrutinise the terms and conditions, get it approved, sent it back to the President, who shall, in turn, present it to the borrower all within ten days.

The applicant stated that there was no state of emergency or circumstance of extreme urgency that necessitates and justifies the hurriedness in processing and obtaining the $800,000,000.

“There is nothing in the letter of request sent by the President to the Senate President that suggests any urgency in the purpose for which the purported loan is being sought,” he said.

The human rights lawyer further stated that going by precedent, it takes the 2nd Respondent several weeks of thorough scrutiny, debates, assessments and deliberations on any request that involves a demand for loans of any magnitude from the executive before such request is determined one way or the other.

He stated that the federal government lacks statutory power to borrow the sum of $800 million to finance and or subsidise consumption.

The applicant maintained that there is no available statistic/data to determine and or identify the poor and low-income earners in Nigeria as a similar exercise in the past generated bitter controversy, submitting that majority of Nigerians believe that the funds were diverted by the officials for personal gains rather than using same for the purpose for which it was meant.

He alleged that some certain loans obtained by the 1st Respondent in the past were not used for the purpose for which they were processed and obtained, asserting that a substantial part of the Sukuk loan, successfully processed and received by the 1st Respondent to re-construct Lagos — Abeokuta Expressway was diverted, and constructions work entirely stopped.

‘’It is not economically viable for the respondents to continue to obtain and accumulate loans purely meant for consumption rather than for capital projects when a whopping sum of N6.31 trillion was budgeted for debt services in the 2023 Appropriation Bill alone.

‘’The primary purpose of requesting an additional loan, as stated by the 1st Respondent in his letter to the 3rd respondent, was not captured in the 2023 Appropriation Bill as passed by the National Assembly,” he said.

No date has been fixed for the hearing of the suit.