President Buhari had sought the approval of the National Assembly to borrow the monies on the grounds of emerging needs.
But in an open letter, signed by the group’s deputy director, Kolawole Oluwadare; the organization expressed concern about the growing debt crisis, and lack of transparency in the spending of loans.
SERAP is asking the National Assembly not to allow the government to accumulate unsustainable levels of debt, and use the country’s scarce resources for staggering and crippling debt service payments rather than for improved access of poor and vulnerable Nigerians to basic public services and human rights.
The accountability group is also concerned about what it called the perceived unwillingness or inability of the National Assembly to exercise its constitutional duties to check the indiscriminate borrowing by the government.
According to the letter, accumulation of excessive debts and unsustainable debt-servicing are inconsistent with the government’s international obligations to use the country’s maximum available resources to achieve progressively to better the lives of Nigerians.
