B’Haram: Senate to treat GEJ’s bid for $1bn loan

The senate intends to urgently consider President Goodluck Jonathan’s request for a $1bn loan to tackle security challenges in the northeastern part of the country, chairman of the senate committee on rules and business, Sen. Ita Enang, has said.

Speaking while addressing reporters in Abuja on Monday, Enang said the request would be laid on the order paper to be considered by the lawmakers who are billed to resume from recess on Tuesday.

Jonathan wrote a letter to the national assembly on July 15, asking the lawmakers to urgently approve the amount as external loan, which is to be used in funding the fight against Boko Haram insurgents.

Jonathan said the external loan was urgently needed to upgrade the equipment, training and logistics of the armed forces and security services.

The loan request was then deemed to have suffered a setback three days later, when the national assembly announced it was proceeding on a two-month recess.

There were insinuations that the Senate could be pressured into cutting short its recess to grant the request, but Enang said this was not the case, explaining that revisiting the matter is only in the interest of the nation.

“The upper chamber always reacts to issues of national importance with immediate effect,” he said

“This [the resumption] is in view of the urgent need to tackle insecurity in the country, particularly in the northeast; I am not aware of any request for the senate to cut short its recess to attend to the president’s letter. If we got, we should have granted it.

“You are all witnesses to how the senate president intervened on the doctors strike, which made them to resume work. The senate president also intervened in other matters, which I am not to say here and most of those things he did were captured in press releases from his office. This shows that the head of the senate was active during the break and therefore would have attended to such a request from the president.”

Enag also listed the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) among priority items to be considered at plenary, saying the bill, which had passed the second reading, would be considered clause-by-clause preparatory to final passage.