South-East senators protest exclusion from $22.79 foreign loan

South-East Caucus in the National Assembly on Thursday took a protest to the offices of the President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan and Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila over the exclusion of the South-East region from the infrastructure loan sought by the federal government from international sources.

The protest is coming a week late after the Senate had last Thursday passed the Presidential request for $22.79bn to fund critical infrastructure in different parts of the country.

Led by the Leader of the South-East caucus and former Deputy President of the Senate, Senator Ike Ekweremadu told journalist that South-East legislators have been assured of inclusion into the loan package to assuage the fears of the people of the region with whom they have conferred to lead these protests.

He said the loan request was approved by the Senate because quite a number of Southeast senators were out of the chamber to attend to other important things.

When asked why the caucus had resorted to a belated move when it should have had an idea of the content of the proposals since it was once before the Eighth Assembly where many of them served.

He pointed out that the region still has a window through legislative process which would be exploited to address the issue.

His words: “Regrettably last Thursday, the Senate passed a borrowing plan which excluded the whole of southeast. we like to use this opportunity to thank some of our colleagues who were at the chamber like Enyinnaya Abaribe who made spirited efforts to get the matter addressed to see that there is equity distribution.

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“Most of us were not in the chamber I was at an INEC retreat so we want to commend him for what he did and those of our colleagues who were there during the conversation.

“We met as a caucus of legislators of the Southeast last night after consulting with our people and getting their feelings regarding this issue.

“We felt that the best approach was for a constructive engagement with the National Assembly leadership, so this afternoon, we had a very good conversation with both the Senate President and the Speaker of the House of Representatives.

“We are here to report that we had fruitful discussion, they showed not just concern but commitment to addressing the issues and they were satisfied and gave us assurances

“We are believing that the matter would either be revisited or since it has not been passed by the House the right thing would be done and then our peoples fears would be assuaged.

We would like to thank the Senate President and the speaker for the assurances on their commitment to national unity and also for justice for all parts of Nigeria. We believe that equity and justice should be the way forward for our country to make progress as their thinking is for an equitable distribution.

“Our thinking is that what the federal government is presenting was a borrowing plan; being a borrowing plan there is still opportunity for us to look at the distribution so that every part of Nigeria would have a sense of belonging on how the loan would be managed.

“We believe that every part of Nigeria is part and parcel of the repayment. So, if we are going to be part and parcel of the repayment, not makes every sense to be part of the utilization of those funds.

“Our concern about certain facilities including the Eastern corridor of the railway from Portharcourt to Maiduguri; we are also concern with the access to the sea in the southeast and provision of access to the sea enabling seaports and also power projects.

“We hope that when this matters are addressed the fears of our people will be addressed, Ekweremadu stated.

The caucus also presented a shopping list to the principal officers whom they told to correct the imbalance over Southeast representation in the national assembly and all its institutions.

His words: The other issue we raised with them is the issue of the distribution at the national assembly with respect with the bureaucracy. When you look at the bureaucracy the southeast is also excluded in the national assembly bureaucracy.

If you look at the Clerk of the National Assembly, the clerk of the Senate, the clerk of the House of Representatives, Head of NILDS  and also the chairman and secretary of the National assembly service commission and public complaint commission, the Southeast is excluded in these places.

Ekweremadu said the leadership of the national assembly assured them that it would be addressed.