Human rights lawyer and activist, Femi Falana has given a warning to the Federal Government led by President Muhammadu Buhari not to borrow any money from the World Bank.
Human Rights Lawyer, Mr. Femi Falana
Lagos-based lawyer, Mr. Femi Falana (SAN), has warned the Federal Government against obtaining loan from the World Bank to finance the 2016 budget as he says it is counterproductive.
Falana said it would be absolutely unwise to go borrowing $2.5 billion from the World Bank and another $1 billion from the African Development Bank when the Federal Government can easily recover about $66.5bn it was being owed.
He therefore urged the Federal Government to jettison any plan to obtain World Bank loan, noting that it required the endorsement of the International Monetary Fund, which he said, usually imposed stringent conditions on borrowing countries.
He lamented that the debt profile of the country had now grown to $64bn after it took much effort in 2005 for the country to exit the London/Paris Club after struggling to repay a loan of $12.4bn.
According to him, part of the said $66.5bn was the sum of $20.2bn in form of underpayment/under-assessment of taxes, royalties, levies and rents, which a former Executive Secretary of the National Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, Mrs. Zainab Ahmed, called on the Federal Government to recover.
He further asked why the Central Bank of Nigeria has not yet recovered $11bn which it injected into the banking industry between 2006 and 2008 as bailout to commercial banks, which had yet to be recovered.
Besides these, Falana also recalled that the Federal Government had on September 6, 2015 announced that the management of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation was in the process of recovering the sum of $9.6bn in “over deducted tax benefits from joint venture partners on major capital projects and the legacy OPA/SWAP oil contracts.”
He also made reference to the $750m of the late Gen. Sani Abacha’s loot, which the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mr. Abubakar Malami (SAN), said arrangements had been concluded on it to recover.
Finally, he also recalled that the a recent probe by the Senate revealed that the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria had accumulated about $25bn which, according to AMCON’s Managing Director, Ahmed Kuru, was owed by “big men who fly in private jets, live in big mansions and they have taken money and they are not paying back.”
So with all these monies yet to be recovered, Falana wonders why the Federal Government wants to box itself in a tight corner by borrowing when the money could easily be recovered.
Falana said, “From the foregoing, you will agree with us that the hapless Nigerian people should not be made to pay for the gross mismanagement of the national economy by the Federal Government and the profligacy of the pampered members of the ruling class.
“Instead of taking a loan of $2.5bn with dangerous conditionalities from the World Bank, the Federal Government should recover the aforesaid loans and revenues of not less than $66.5bn with the assistance of the anti-graft agencies.
“While acknowledging the concerted efforts to recover the looted wealth of the nation through the anti-graft agencies and the Arms Procurement Panel, the Buhari Administration should embark on the immediate recovery of the aforesaid loans and accrued revenues with a view to financing the 2016 budget and the infrastructural development of the nation.”