The senior special assistant to the president, Niger Delta Affairs, Senator Ita Enang, has urged the Niger Delta Youth Council (NDYC) to be active in making cases to ensure that all regions of the country benefit from federal government development programmes.
Enang gave the charge when the NDYC paid him a courtesy call Wednesday in Abuja.
He said: “What should be your concern is that if we are taking loans for road and rail projects or developmental projects in this country. What the loan taken for is also done in your state and the Niger Delta region because it is Nigeria that will pay for the loan and not the state where the project is located.”
“So we should ask our ministers, our politicians and our civil servants to be alert so that they can contribute to ensure that when the loan is taken, it is also structured in a way that it will be beneficial to all sections of the country,” he stated.
He stated further that: “Minister of transport is not taking loan to do the railway as insinuated by certain section of the public, it is Nigeria that is taking loan to do the railways and other developmental projects and this loan we are taking is not without the laws, the loan is guided by Debt Management Office (DMO) establishment act.”
The presidential aide said the federal government cannot take out loans for any project or programme without the consent and approval of the National Assembly.
“The loan first of all has to be appraised by the DMO, it has to be laid before the Ministry of Finance.
“When that is done, it is transmitted to the president who will now forward it to the National Assembly. The law says that terms and conditions of those loans must be laid before the National Assembly, and the country cannot take loan until the National Assembly approves those terms and conditions,” he stated.
He cited the Debt Management Office Establishment Act part vi and vii, page D12-8, adding that “It is the concurrent resolution of the two chambers in the same work that can allow the loan to be taken. When people speak, they don’t speak in reference of this. Only Nigeria can guarantee a loan for the state government.”
The senator said: “These are the matters I thought I should draw your attention to so that in making your advocacy, you should draw from an intellectual basis because there is nothing that President Buhari is doing that is not governed by law. Any matter that you think is not governed by the law of this country, it is your right to go to court and it is left for the court to decide.”
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Source: www.blueprint.ng
