The Senate has resolved to invite the Transportation Minister, Rotimi Amaechi, after a Senator raised concerns on the alleged exclusion of the eastern part of the country from FG's rail line.
Amaechi at the senate
The Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Chibuike Amaechi, has been summond by the Nigerian Senate over the exclusion of South-East from the beneficiaries of the $5.8bn loan request from China Exim Bank by the Federal Government for the construction of Standard Guage lines across the country.
According to Vanguard, while raising a motion at the floor of the senate against approving the loan over South-East exclusion, Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe, (PDP Abia South), urged the Senate to reject approving the loan until all regions were carried along in the utilisation of the loan.
Abaribe in his motion had queried with dismay why the government wanted to take such a huge loan that would benefit all other regions apart from the South East, adding that the loan would be paid back by all section of the country and as such, all section should be taken into consideration.
“The Eastern section of the rail segment which has link between South-Eastern and North-Eastern segment if the rail line is completely left out,” Abaribe said.
“The loan being a federal government would be paid by all sections of the country; therefore, every section of the country should be taken into consideration.
“For the railway project to have meaningful impact on the development of the country it should cover all parts of the country.
“Exclusion of the Eastern section which links four zones of South-South, South-East, and North -Central and the North-East, and the key cities such as Port Harcourt, Enugu, Aba, Markurdi, Lafia, Gudi, Bauchi and Maiduguri is inexplicable,” Abaribe submitted.
Although he included in his prayers that the consideration of the loan request be suspended pending “correction”, the Senate decided to delete that prayer.
It however uphold the prayer that Amaechi “appear and explain” reason for the exclusion of the Eastern rail corridor.
The President of the Senate, Senator Bukola Saraki noted that the leadership of the National Assembly had already identified the flaw and had taken it up with the executive, adding the executive had taken note of the issues and had agreed to reach a resolution with the Senate Committee on Local and Foreign Debt on the matter.
The Senate, however, upheld the argument of Senator Abaribe that there was no reason why the South East should be excluded from the rail project for which the loan was sought.
The Senate, further, okayed the motion to invite the minister of transportation to explain why the Eastern line was excluded from the plan. The minister is expected to appear before the committee on Local and Foreign Debts to explain the exclusion.
The Deputy President of the Senate also supported the motion stressing that the whole country would pay for the loan and as such the loan should be beneficial to all.