Ndume said Buhari’s administration intends to share the money among 50 million Nigerians.
The senator representing Borno South Senatorial District, Ali Ndume on Tuesday said he kicked against the $800 million loan sought by President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration because it is intended to be spent on consumption.
In an interview on Arise TV, monitored by SaharaReporters, Ndume said Buhari’s administration intends to share the money among 50 million Nigerians.
According to him, each person will get N7,200.
He said he is prepared to take the federal government to court over its plan to take the World Bank loan.
SaharaReporters earlier reported that the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed, revealed to State House correspondents that the government had secured $800 milion from the World Bank to provide post-petroleum subsidy palliatives for over 50 million Nigerians ahead of June 2023.
Ndume said, “The loan issue is something that is in the public domain there. I have even been preparing to go to court to stop that if I can and you are talking to me about what they did in the House of Representatives. I’m not in the House of Representatives.
“I have stated my reason why I am against that loan; I am not against borrowing but if we are to borrow to consume as they are planning to do now, I am against it, especially in this case when you look at the statistics.
“I am against this loan of $800 million and I was expecting that Nigerians will make their voice known that they are against the borrowing at this time.”
He said the loan would be better utilised if channelled into buying fertilizers for farmers, and building of schools or health centres.
“If you borrowed $800 million and convert it at the official rate of N450, you have about N360 billion if you divide it by their planned number of people that they want to distribute that money to; that 50 million.
“A person will go with N7,200 which is not even enough to buy a bag of rice. By the time they distribute that money, we will be left with nothing but paying for it for the next 40 years as they say.
“But if the government is smart enough to say that we borrowed this money and divide it by each of the local government – 774 local governments. Each local government will have at least N465,116,000, with that you can build blocks of classrooms with that, you build primary healthcare centres, buy fertilisers for farmers and the impact will be felt but with this, it’s just going to be another money down the drain.
“You have just about two weeks to go and you are saying that you are borrowing $800 million and going ahead to spend that $800 million in two weeks; that I am totally against.”
Also last week, Ndume vowed to challenge the loan request in court during an interview on Trust TV’s Daily Politics.
According to him, some people are misleading the President.
He said, “I will go to court on that because it is unfair, illegal and unconstitutional. Let me give you example, we are two now in the studio and you say you are going to borrow one million and share among the two of us, how are you going to select the two?
“Besides that, if you are giving to the two and they are the ones to pay that is okay but it is all Nigerians that will pay.
“If you give Nigerians today ₦4,000 randomly, how fair is that? In fact, it is unconstitutional because the constitution of Nigeria does not allow you to discriminate.
“These guys, they will just use grammar to confuse this old man (Buhari) and he will just approve. He (Buhari) doesn’t understand this, they just want to steal the money, we cannot continue to allow this kind of things.”
“What they are targeting is what they can get out of it not what Nigerians can get, you can quote me on that. Any of them can come to challenge me on TV, I will come back to explain myself; they are misleading the President,” he added.