The Makinde-Daura Presidential Campaign Organisation (MDPCO), has demanded an open inquest into President Bola Tinubu administration’s reported commitment of approximately 340 million barrels of Nigeria’s future crude oil production for separate foreign loans amounting to about N11.2 trillion.
The APM PCC said the demand for public accountability followed revelations that the federal government, through opaque financing arrangements under the Project Gazelle, Project Gazelle II, Project Leopard and Project Leopard II, has committed huge part of Nigeria’s future crude oil production on loans whose repayment obligations extend to 2034.
In a statement by the Director of Strategic Communications of the Makinde, Daura campaigns, Richard Ihediwa, said, ‘’The scary implication is that the Tinubu administration has sold Nigeria’s patrimony in advance, sacrificing our tomorrow to finance today’s failures!
‘’We demand that President Tinubu should give public explanation on the loan arrangements including the identity of the lenders, the loan amounts, interest rates, management fees, repayment schedules and the precise volume of crude oil so far committed.
‘’Nigerians deserve to know the exact pricing formula governing these oil deliveries, the outstanding liabilities being refinanced, the total financial obligations arising from the transactions as well as the financial burden on future generations of Nigeria.’’
He urged Nigerians to recall that the MDPCO had warned weeks ago that the president was taking Nigeria down the path of Khedive Ismail’s Egypt, whose foreign borrowing and extravagant spending plunged the country into financial ruin, culminating in British occupation in 1882.
‘’A nation that repeatedly pledges its future revenues to finance present excesses risks surrendering its economic independence.
‘’It is an unconscionable act of fiscal recklessness for the Tinubu administration to commit such enormous volumes of future crude oil production to debt without demonstrating commensurate investments in productive capacity, industrial development, infrastructure and improved living standards.
‘’The implications of this fresh APC yoke extend beyond the tenure of the present administration. By pre-empting future oil revenues, these arrangements could strangulate future generations with obligations arising from today’s financial recklessness.’’
Chuks Okocha in Abuja
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