Senate President, Saraki Insists Senate Will Not Approve Buhari’s $30bn Loan… See Details

Even after many visits by the Senate President, Bukola Saraki to the Villa, he has insisted he stands with the decision of the Senate to decline Buhari’s $30bn loan request.

President of the Senate, Dr. Bukola Saraki, has insisted that the Senate stands by its decision not to approve President Muhammadu Buhari’s request to borrow $29.96bn.

 

Saraki made it clear that his recent visits to the President have nothing to do with the loan request and that the rejection was not personal but in the interest of the country.

 

He made this public in a statement on Thursday by the Special Adviser to the Senate President on Media and Publicity, Yusuph Olaniyonu, Saraki advised politicians and the media to stop “peddling empty speculations about his recent visits to the Presidential Villa and linking such visits to the request by the Buhari administration for approval of the National Assembly to get $29.9bn loan from foreign sources.”

 

Saraki said, “Like I once told the media, these politically-motivated commentaries are trivialising a serious national issue and presenting it as if it is a personal matter that can be decided at meetings between Saraki and President Muhammadu Buhari.

“The National Assembly, which I head as Senate President, has taken a position on the issue as required of it by the laws of the land and legislative conventions."

 

The Senate President described the comments by some politicians on the loan issue “without any factual basis” as “unfortunate.”

 

Adding his voice to the call for the rejection of the President’s request, Governor of Ekiti State, Mr. Ayodele Fayose, warned the Senate President not to support the Federal Government’s loan request in order not to plunge the country into more foreign debts and jeopardize the future of young Nigerians.

 

In a statement through the Governor’s Special Assistant on Public Communications and New Media, Lere Olayinka, specifically warned Saraki of the danger.

 

Fayose stated that, “No matter how much he (Saraki) tries to warm himself into the hearts of the Aso Rock cabal, they can never love him and accept him into their fold.”