The Senate’s plenary session on Thursday turned rowdy following the insistence of the opposition senators to know the details of President Muhammadu Buhari’s $22.7bn foreign loan request.
Recall that President Buhari had written to the Senate President Bukola Saraki-led Senate, seeking approval of $29.96bn loan request, which was later turned down by the lawmakers.
The request was, however, represented last December but was reduced to $22.7bn, claiming that the eighth National Assembly actually approved about $6bn out of the money.
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However, on Thursday, trouble began when the Chairman of the Local and Foreign Loans Committee, Clifford Ordia, submitted the report without the details of the projects to be funded with the money.
The Minority Leader, Enyinnaya Abaribe, drew the attention of the Senate to the anomaly and requested Senate President Ahmad Lawan to allow a clause-by-clause consideration of the loan request.
Mr Abaribe’s request was turned down by the Senate President who said the report of the panel should not be subjected to debate, based on the rules of the Senate.
Mr Abaribe warned the Mr Lawan that going ahead to “hoodwink” the Senate into passing the multi-billion dollar loan request without the details would spell doom for the country.
The matter degenerated into a serious tension with the senators viewing the development along partisan lines.
The leader of the Senate, Yahaya Abdullahi, then heeded the suggestion of Senator Gabriel Suswan that the Senate go into executive session for 15 minutes to enable the red chamber to resolve the confusion.
