Senate and FG borrowings

• Published date: 24 January 2023
• Publication title: Nigeria - The Nation

The Federal Government appears to be between the apocryphal devil and the deep blue sea, with regards to its dependency on borrowings to fund its 2023 budget deficit, standing at N10.78 trillion out of total budget of N21.82 trillion. Senate President Ahmad Lawan's admonition on further borrowings showcases this despondency. In one breath, he advised the Federal Government to stop further borrowing, while in another, he acknowledges that the borrowings help government execute its projects. In his words: 'For those of my colleagues who will be returning to the National Assembly, this should be a very important matter for the next assembly to continue to deal with because we just cannot afford to continue borrowing.'

He went on to say: 'we should minimise it. I know it is not possible to eliminate it completely, but we should minimise it.' Again he said: 'The next assembly should do that. I don't know how, but definitely, from our experience of today and even before today, we can do better in getting more revenues for government to deploy for development.' The apparent confusion on how to deal with the burgeoning nation's total debt stock put at N44.06 trillion as at the third quarter (Q3) of last year by the Debt Management Office is a cause for worry.

For us, the only option is for the Federal Government to stop further borrowings, or to minimise borrowing to the barest minimum, since the tenure of the present political actors will end by May 29. As rightly advised by the senate president at the occasion marking his 64th birthday in Abuja, since the current administration is running out of time, the incoming administration should be left to determine whether to keep borrowing or look internally to solve the fiscal challenges of the federal and state governments.

Senator Lawan advised: 'I think we have to work hard to improve our revenue generation and collection because it is not looking too sustainable that we tolerate people and some agencies of government, to misapply or not even declare the revenues they collect. We can't continue with that.' We hope the next National Assembly will enact robust laws to deal ruthlessly with such misapplication of internally generated revenue, as the nation must look inward to heal the nation's economy.

Speaking on the way forward, Mr Lawan promised that in its remaining days the senate 'will continue to engage with our revenue-generating agencies until we get better outcomes from them.' Also of paramount importance is...