THE Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has said the warning issued by the World Bank against the rising debt profile of President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration was a confirmation of its earlier warning, last week, to government to shelve the move to borrow more.

Dayo Adeyeye, national publicity secretary of the PDP, in a statement  a few days ,  had condemned the president’s request to borrow the sum of $5.5 billion, saying   that fresh loans portended dangers for the nation’s economy and Nigerians in general.

It  said: “As a political party that was in power for 16 years, that worked assiduously to take the nation out of debt, we are appalled at the rate the government of the All Progressives Congress, APC, has been stacking debt for the future generations without any corresponding infrastructural development in the country to justify the huge borrowing.

“We wish to remind Nigerians that as a party with foresight, we raised the alarm against the plan to borrow another $5.5 billion for another bogus infrastructural developmental project, but the government considered our patriotic complaints as mere politicking.

“Not minding the genuineness of our advice to the government, the Minister for Finance, Kemi Adeosun speaking for President Buhari’s administration, insisted that the government must, and will continue to borrow before it could fund projects listed in the budget,” the statement read. The party further noted that the warning by the World Bank was an indication that President Buhari was bent on taking the nation down a precarious future.

“Our altruistic position on the evil of unbridled borrowing by the government has been confirmed by the World Bank which has issued a caveat to the government of the APC, not to borrow and plunge the future of this country into uncertainty. “The World Bank stated unequivocally that the country’s debt to revenue ratio which stood at 35 per cent in 2015 has grown to 60 per cent by 2016, reflecting a reduction in government revenues and rising debt profile; thereby raising a question about the debt sustainability.

“We wish to refer all Nigerians to the debt profile of the nation under the President Buhari administration which has just been released. We are sure that nobody will agree that the government should borrow a kobo anymore in the name of funding the nation’s budget. “In the light of this, we wish to reiterate our call and plea on the National Assembly to consider the plight of our unborn children and reject the request for the $5.5 billion loan by the administration,” PDP added.
– Oct 18, 2017 @ 08:55 GMT