‘At what point will you accommodate south-east?’ — rep tackles Buhari on $22.7bn loan

Toby Okechukwu, a member of the house of representatives, has tackled President Muhammadu Buhari over the “skewed” implementation plan for the $22.7bn loan approved by the national assembly.

Addressing journalists on Tuesday, Okechukwu, who represents Aninri/Agwu/Oji-uzo federal constituency in Enugu state, accused the president of sidelining the south-east in the plan.

He said the region has always come last in the president’s priorities on budgetary allocations, adding that the approval for the loan “does not meet the expectations of our people”.

“Because, first and foremost, there are certain strategic projects that ought to be there. First, the western corridor rail line which goes from Lagos to Kano and the eastern corridor rail line that goes from Port Harcourt through Enugu to Makurdi, Plateau down to Maiduguri,” he said.

“They were established the same day, there were commenced the same day. So, to take one in exclusion of the other is not appropriate.

“Secondly, it is an infrastructure sufficient to give impetus to the eastern corridor passing through south-south, south-east, north-central and north-east.

“And if you check all these areas, what you’ll see is that we have trouble ranging from Boko Haram to agitations to militancy; we have challenges in these areas and when you don’t undertake economic activities that will improve it, you are not helping.”

He also said what Nigeria is seeking to borrow is “humongous”, adding: “We are going to take another $4.5 billion to fund the budget, the next season we are going to take another £4 billion for power, so at which point are you going to accommodate the south-east?

“It is simply because the executive is not willing. They are not able to do that and at the parliamentary level we are expecting that that should have been taken into consideration.”