President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan has said that the Federal Government must continue to borrow loans because the country does not have the necessary revenue.
Lawan said this after a closed-door meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari on Thursday in Abuja.
The Senate President stated further that the country’s resources are low, adding that the government cannot tax the citizens heavily for infrastructural development.
Lawan said “You can’t, in my view and judgement, tax Nigerians further for you to raise the money for infrastructural development; other countries do that, but we’ve serious situation across the country.
“So, you can’t put taxes on the people. The only option left is for us to borrow responsibly, utilise prudently and economically, and ensure that the projects are self-sustaining; that they can pay back the loan.”
“Our options are really very limited as a country. First, we don’t have the necessary revenue; Nigeria is poor, we shouldn’t deceive ourselves. Nigeria is not rich given the circumstances we live in, given the challenges we have.
“Our resources are so low, our revenues are so low; therefore, the option of not doing anything just to sit (because we’ve no money, we should not go for infrastructure development) is not an option worthy of consideration. You cannot keep the economy stagnant.”
