Arise News anchor, Rufai Oseni, has fired back at the Minister of Finance, Taiwo Oyedele, over his defence of the fresh external borrowing request of President Bola Tinubu.
DAILY POST recalls that Oyedele had on Wednesday stated that the $20.52 billion and €1.045 billion fresh loans requested by President Tinubu are not borrowing but investment.
Reacting, however, on Arise TV Morning Show, Rufai insisted that it is a loan and not investment, no matter how the government tries to rebrand it.
“If you take money and you will pay back with interest, it’s a loan. Call it whatever you want, it’s still a loan not an investment,” Rufai said.
Rufai stated that Nigerians are tired of gimmicks and want to know what the money is meant for, how it will be paid back and what projects it will fund.
Recall that President Tinubu had on Tuesday requested National Assembly approval for $20.52 billion and €1.045 billion in external loans.
The Presidency said about $10.6 billion of the money will go into transportation projects including the Sokoto-Badagry and Lagos-Calabar highways and the Kano-Kaduna railway.
According to Oyedele, the rest of the money will cover security, health, agriculture, energy, education and other sectors, with much of the money coming from the World Bank at 2.1% interest.
But Rufai said the government must stop playing with words and give Nigerians a concrete project-by-project breakdown, adding that borrowing without transparency is what plunged Nigeria into its current debt crisis.