Senator Jimoh Ibrahim, lawmaker representing Ondo South in the Senate, has said that the Federal Government (FG) must inevitably borrow money to run the country’s economy effectively.
Speaking on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Monday, Ibrahim said that borrowing will help the FG build critical infrastructure which will enable it repay the loan in the long run.
“If you don’t borrow to run the economy, what do you want to do? Where do you want to get the fund to run the economy? Dubai, with the population of 12 million people in total, is owing 168 billion dollars and look at what they have used the money to do? They are paying back now at 10 billion dollars a month.
“Now, Nigeria, with the population of 250 million people, is owing 77 million dollars, now you have challenges here and there. So, the key issue here has to do with the fact that you must borrow to run the economy,” Ibrahim stressed.
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The Chairman, Senate Committee on Inter-Parliamentary Affairs, also defended the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu-led delegation to the ongoing COP28 Climate Summit in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
He said that Nigeria might want to host the event in the future and therefore that number of delegates from the country was justified.
According to him, the 422 persons funded to the event out of the total 1,411 Nigerian registered delegates at the summit weren’t enough.
“Funding (over) 400 people to a conference like this is too small. You may want to host the conference sometimes in future,” he said.
He said the number of delegates has an influence on knowledge sharing at the event, adding that Nigeria was suffering from the impact of environmental pollution.
The Senator insisted that the international community won’t take Tinubu as serious if he was in Dubai with a lean delegation.
