Why we need $30bn loan deal —Presidency

The Senior Special Assistant to President Muhammadu Buhari on National Assembly Matters (Senate), Senator Ita Enang, said on Wednesday, that the Federal Government needed the $30 billion foreign loan proposed by the President to enable the government to cover the missing gap of development projects.

Senator Enang, who made the explanation on behalf of the President in a chat with newsmen in the National Assembly, said  the loan request, if approved by the National Assembly, would take the country out of recession.

The National Assembly had rejected the loan request when the Senate returned the request to the President on account of his failure to provide details of the expected loan deal.

But speaking with newsmen in the Senate, on Wednesday, Enang said: “Remember that this $30 billion request was not what was to be spent in 2016, 2017 or 2018. It was a projection for three years, therefore the Senate has remitted it back to the Mr President requesting further and it is still pending in the House of Representatives.

“I am sure you could observe in recent times the level of consultation between the arms of government at the apex leadership level and also at the level of the sub-committees; between the ministers and the committees.

“These are all intended to address and resolve any question which could be thorny in any of the requests made by the executive.”

He also stated that the level of consultations between the executive and the legislature informed the decision of the President to assent to 30 bills in one fell swoop, adding that the development was unprecedented in the last one year and six months of the inauguration of the eighth Senate.

He added that the 2017 budget process would be smoother than the previous years as a result of what he called enough consultations.

The Presidential Adviser also stated that the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB) Amendment Bill already passed into law by the two chambers of the National Assembly was still undergoing some legislative processes in the National Assembly.