The Senate was in a rowdy session over a request by the Nigerian President, Muhammadu Buhari, to approve Ways and Means Advances restructuring to the tune of N23.7 trillion.
Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, and Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, at the plenary on Wednesday read out Buhari’s request to members of the respective chambers.
In the request titled, ‘Restructuring of Ways and Means Advances,’ the President wrote, “The Ways and Means Advance by the Central Bank of Nigeria to the Federal Government has been a funding option to the Federal Government to cater for short-term or emergency finance to fund delayed government expected cash receipt of fiscal deficit.
“The Ways and Means balance as of 19th December 2022, is N23,719,703,774,306.90.
“I have approved the securitisation of the Ways and Means balances along the following terms: amount, N23.7tn; tenure, 40 years; moratorium on principal repayment, three years; pricing interest rate, nine per cent.”
Informant247 gathered that the drama ensued when the chairman of the Senate Committee on Finance, Senator Solomon Adeola, was reporting the committee’s finding on the Ways and Means and then the Senator representing Rivers West, Senator Betty Apiafi, stood up to counter the new borrowings, and the Senate President shouted her down.
Different lawmakers such as Senator Smart Adeyemi (APC, Kogi West), and George Sekibo (PDP Rivers) raised a motion in support of Apiafi that the Senate President had no power to shout down a senator while speaking.
As the tension kept increasing at the plenary, Lawan quickly called for a closed-door session.