NANS Reacts To FG’s plan To borrow $750m From World Bank

The National Association of Nigerian Students has faulted plans by the Federal Government to borrow $750m from the World Bank.

The association also expressed displeasure with the continued strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities.

This was contained in a statement jointly signed by the chairmen of NANS Zone D and its Public Relations Officer, Kazeem Israel.

The Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed, had announced on Friday that the Federal Government is in the process of accessing a $750m World Bank loan for states.

She said the facility would boost the local economy in the various states, adding that the Federal Government was also considering the cause and consequences of civil unrest and COVID-19 across the country.

But NANS said, “As an association, we frown on the plan of the Federal Government to take a loan of $750m from the World Bank. This is not unconnected from the fact that the basis for borrowing is always false because it is not the case that we don’t have enough wealth to finance our developmental objectives as a country.

But, on the basis of capitalism, 80 per cent of the wealth of Nigeria is trapped in the hands of minority few which comprises of local capitalists and their imperialists masters. If there had been a judicious and democratic management of the wealth that belongs to us as a people, it is enough to finance our developmental objectives.

“The borrowings and loans have become another conduit pipe for looting public resources and that explains why over the last 20 years, the enormous public debt once accumulated has not translated into any meaningful development in solving the problems we are plagued with as a people.”