Senate President Ahmed Lawan has justified the Federal Government incessant borrowings.
This was as he said that Nigeria had no other means than to borrow to fund infrastructure.
He said the country was currently poor and left with no option but to venture into borrowing to finance infrastructural projects.
The Senate President, who spoke on Thursday in an interview with State House correspondents after meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari, however, vowed that the legislator would not grant unnecessary loans to the executives.
Lawan asserted that requests for loans would pass through thorough scrutiny to ensure they were necessary, adding that when permitted, the loans would be monitored to ensure effective use.
He said, “We’ll also have the loan request from Mr. President. The loan request is to fund the 2021 Appropriation Act and of course, this is not a new request. It’s something that we have passed in the MTEF and it’s something that when we pass the budget 2021, we also passed that.
“What I want to assure Nigerians here is that we are not going to be frivolously supporting or approving loans for the executive arm of government. Our options are really very limited as a country. First, we don’t have the necessary revenues, Nigeria is poor; we shouldn’t deceive ourselves.
“You cannot, in my view and judgment, tax Nigerians further for you to raise the money for infrastructure development. Other countries do that, but we have serious situations across the country; so, you cannot put taxes on people.”