The President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan, has said that Nigeria’s borrowing plan “is a necessary burden” to help fund critical infrastructure across the country.
Lawan, who stated this on Friday while fielding questions from newsmen in Abuja, said that for the country to be adequately developed, the National Assembly was considering two loan requests of the Federal Government.
“Before us in the Senate are two requests from the executive arm of government; one is to construct and rehabilitate rail lines to the different parts of the country.
“The other one is to boost the economy directly; invest into agriculture and other real sectors of the economy including mining,” he said.
He noted that the loan requests also included requests for loans guaranteed by the Federal Government for some states.
“This is because the N32 trillion you are talking about is not all Federal Government debts. Part of it belongs to the states, only that the Federal Government gives the guarantee.
“Yet, for us to develop the country we need to build infrastructure.
“What do we do to raise funds? There are several ways; we are going to raise taxes, can we afford that in the current situation to raise taxes for us to fund the building of our infrastructure?.
“So, what are the options? Definitely that option is out (to raise taxes).
“In fact, what we have is not the kind of infrastructure that will boost our economy. So we can’t raise taxes, the option is to borrow and to borrow responsibly,” Lawan stated.
The President of the Senate further explained that before the borrowing, the government had to first identify those essential infrastructure that could grow the economy.
On Twitter ban, Lawan said “the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, had informed Nigerians that the government and managers of Twitter were finding ways to resolve the matter.
“That is what we heard. And our belief is that Nigeria needs Twitter just as much as Twitter needs Nigeria.
“Our expectation is that with engagement between the Federal Government and Twitter, we will resolve the dispute between Twitter and our government,” he said.
On better remuneration for journalists, Lawan advised the media practitioners to seek legislation that would give a bite to the call for enhancement of their remuneration from their employers.
“If you feel very strongly about this you can sponsor a bill to the National Assembly. Also remember that most of the media houses are privately-owned.
“But still if you feel you are not getting a good deal, you can come and talk to us in our Committee on Ethics, Privileges and Public Petitions that your employer is not giving you a good wage.
“And of course you know the risk.
“And I can assure you that the National Assembly will look into it. I’m not sure that it will be passed but we will consider it,” he said. (NAN)