The Tinubu Media Support Group (TMSG) has described the position of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) on the external borrowing plan of the President Bola Tinubu administration as a public display of political gamesmanship.
The opposition party had, through its spokesman, Bolaji Abdullahi, a former minister, questioned loans taken by the government and also sought a forensic audit of all loans taken by the All Progressives Congress (APC) since 2015 including their details, disbursement and utilisation.
But in a statement signed by its Chairman Emeka Nwankpa and Secretary Dapo Okubanjo, TMSG wondered why Abdullahi deliberately left out loans taken by the government he served at a time Nigeria had multiple oil booms.
It said: “We noticed that as part of efforts to present itself as a credible alternative to the All Progressives Congress (APC), the ADC has decided to raise the issue of external borrowing in the last ten years.
”And just like what it recently said on the issue of refineries, ADC opted to restrict itself to successive APC administrations and demanded a probe of what it described as fiscal vandalism by the last two governments. This is laughable.
”We are left to wonder how a former federal cabinet member like Bolaji Abdullahi, the ADC spokesman, could resort to sheer deceit, gimmicky, and political gamesmanship on the issue of external borrowing plans when he claimed that the $21billion, 2024-2026 plan recently approved by the National Assembly would increase the country’s debt profile ‘before the end of the year’.
”For us, there is no way a member of the Goodluck Jonathan-led administration which sought and got the approval of the 7th National Assembly for ‘a portfolio of concessionary loans totalling $9.3 billion under its 2012-2014 Medium Term External Borrowing Plan’ could pretend not to be aware of what it entails more than ten years after.
”It is also public knowledge that the same Goodluck administration had, within two months in office, brazenly pushed through an external borrowing plan for World Bank loan facilities totalling $915 million “for urban water and transport, human capacity and power infrastructure projects across the country.”
”So we dare the ADC spokesman to show proof that the government he served in two different cabinet roles collected all the facilities it secured parliamentary approvals for before handing over in 2015.
”This is because, like the Finance ministry had explained about two months ago, an external borrowing plan does not equate to actual borrowing for the period.
”We need to add that contrary to ADC’s mischievous position, a borrowing plan does not mean an automatic increase in a nation’s debt stock and to take a cue from the initial clarification by the finance ministry, projects attached to the 2024-2026 plan approved by the National Assembly have multi-year draw-downs of between 5 – 7 years, which are project-tied loans including the one for the Eastern railway corridor that will transverse South East Nigeria.
”For the avoidance of doubt, the actual borrowing for each year is contained in the annual budget, and in the case of 2025, the external borrowing component is US$1.23 billion. It is an outright falsehood to suggest that $20 billion will be added to the country’s debt by the end of the year.”
TMSG also weighed in on ADC’s demand for an audit of loans collected by Nigeria in the last ten years.
”Sadly, this is nothing but a continuation of the politics of deceit, chicanery, and subterfuge that this political party appeared to have adopted since it came as the preferred platform of failed opposition politicians
”We wonder why ADC is demanding a probe of the loans taken in the last ten years only and not the preceding years of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
”Like the notable think tank, Independent Media and Policy Initiative (IMPI) recently noted in a policy advisory on the nation’s refineries, we believe it would be more ideal to have a more extensive audit that will also cover the 2010 to 2015 period when the administration that Bolaji Abdullahi served as minister presided over a country that earned N51 trillion from crude oil sales alone.
”This is because while the APC administrations’ loans were project-tied with visible outcomes, the same could not be said of the preceding administrations,” it said.
The group argued that ADC’s demand for a forensic audit of the Muhammadu Buhari-era loans is a direct challenge to the late former president’s ministers in the party.
”And for us, if there is any proof of ADC as a motley assembly of strange bedfellows, united in their collective anger over loss of power and privileges, this is it.
”This is because we do not understand how a party spokesman could sign off on a statement that directly questions the roles of senior party members like former Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami and former Transportation minister, Rotimi Amaechi, in external borrowings in eight of the ten years that ADC claimed APC administrations indulged in reckless borrowings.
”Also baffling is that another former minister in the Buhari administration, Rauf Aregbesola is the National Secretary of a party that glibly questioned what a government he served for 8 years did with external borrowings of over $30 billion at a time of declining oil revenue.
”So we are waiting to see how this ill-thought-out statement has triggered some tension in the ranks of an opposition party that is still struggling to survive an internal crisis of legitimacy,” the statement added
