'How we got into the N10bn loan mess' by Rep

An insight into how the House of Representatives found itself in a N10 billion loan mess was given at the weekend by its Appropriation Committee Chairman, Mr. Ayo Adeseun.
The House has been boiling since the news broke that its leadership obtained a N10 billion loan from a bank as a result of which members’ final entitlements are unpaid.

Adeseun, a two-term member of the House of Representatives, is now a senator-elect from Oyo Central on the platform of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN). He blamed President Goodluck Jonathan’s failure to sign the 2011 appropriation into law for the financial crisis.

He spoke in Ibadan during the retreat for state and National Assembly members-elect organised by the ACN.
He also criticised the media for dwelling so much on the allegations by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor Sanusi Lamido Sanusi that the National Assembly was taking about 25 per cent of the country’s total budget.  He said that affected the ability of the House to repay the loan.

Speaker Dimeji Bankole and other principal officers are under attack over the N10 billion debt.
According to Adeseun, the N10 billion loan was spent on allowances paid to members to perform some legislative duties last year, but which were not provided for in the 2010 budget. He said the House sourced the money from banks with the intention of providing for it in the supplementary budget.

According to him, the House could not make provision for it again in the supplementary budget due to the outcry that greeted Sanusi’s allegation last year.

He said the banks became skeptical of giving more loans to the House due to the failure of Bankole and his deputy Usman Nafada to get re elected. He said the bank feared that the incoming leadership might refuse to pay the debt because it was not a party to the deal.

Adeseun explained that provision was made for the debt in the 2011 budget, but that the President refused to sign the budget for being bloated.

He insisted that the budget had always been enlarged by the National Assembly because the lawmakers wanted more money allocated for building of infrastructure to allow a steady improvement of utilities that are capable of helping Nigerians to build wealth and ultimately help the economy to grow.

He lamented that the refusal to sign the Appropriation Bill into law shattered the hope of getting funds to repay the debt, which ballooned into a national embarrassment for the legislators in the last 15 days.
Adeseun said the National Assembly passed the budget based on $75 per barrel of crude oil but that the Executive insisted on a $65 benchmark.

The senator-elect said the lawmakers increased the benchmark because the excess income generated from crude goes into the Excess Crude Account, which the Federal Government just shares like booties with states and local governments without being able to point at tangible projects achieved with the large sum.

Since a barrel currently sells in excess of $100, Adeseun explained that it was sensible for the lawmakers to reason that rather than deliberately make way for huge sums going into the excess crude account, which the three levels of government do not maximize to the benefit of the masses, it was better that the Assembly budgeted more of the income for feasible projects that will benefit Nigerians.

He said: “When the budget was passed in 2010, there were areas of omission which the House had to source funds for. But for the fact that the President has not signed the 2011 budget, the issue would have been resolved. Why did President Jonathan refuse to sign the budget? He said it was too large. We have always insisted on shoring up appropriation for infrastructure. We believe that infrastructure must be seriously improved to allow businesses grow and allow more Nigerians to make wealth. Power, roads, health and education need improved appropriation. And we need to do this so that meaningful progress can be made. We also believe that the $75 benchmark for crude is right because a barrel currently sells for more than $100,” he said.

Adeseun, however, expressed confidence that the financial logjam would be resolved within days, pointing out that efforts had already reached the advanced stage to get a solution.

He decried the embarrassment the scandal has caused members of the House, particularly the leadership, stressing that it undermines the quality of work which the House has done in the last four years. He also described it as a “disservice to the nation itself”.

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