How Buhari escaped impeachment – Lawmaker

The lawmaker representing Adamawa Southern Senatorial District in the National Assembly Senator, Yaroe Binos, has revealed that some lawmakers called for the impeachment of the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), over his administration’s borrowing spree.

Binos, who said the lawmakers’ call for the impeachment of the President, came on the day the 2023 national appropriation bill of 21.82tn was passed by the National Assembly.

He also disclosed that the said lawmakers, whose names he did not mention, also sought Buhari’s removal as President over accumulation of over N22tn Central Bank loans in violations of CBN Act.

This was as the lawmaker also chided the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele, for going into hiding, in order not to be called to account over the N22tn overdraft which the Presidency was seeking National Assembly to convert into a bond repayable in 40 years period.

Binos, who made the disclosure during a parley with members of the Nigerian Union of Journalists and members of the Correspondent Chapel of the NUJ, Adamawa chapter, lamented the humongous debt the Buhari administration would be leaving behind on May 29.

He said the national debt stock which stood at N47tn would rise by another N23.7tn to over N70tn by the time the lawmakers approved the securitisation of the overdraft with the CBN.

While questioning the utilisation of the loans, Binos accused the Buhari regime of using substantial part of loans collected on consumption instead of channelling it into capital investment.

He said it was unfair for the government to pile up debts for children yet unborn to contend with its repayment.

According to Binos, what saved the President was the resolve by lawmakers across party lines not to do the President’s bid.

He explained that legislators across party lines, who had grown weary of being allegedly used as rubber stamp, “resolved to stay action on doing the presidency’s bidding on securitising the CBN loans, which if approved would have raised the nation’s debt stock to over N70tn.”

He charged Nigerians not to re-elect the All Progressives Congress, saying the country needed somebody that would come and clean up the mess the APC had plunged the country into.

He urged Nigerians to vote the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, Atiku Abubakar, saying he possessed the acumen, background and experience, as an entrepreneur, to pull the country back from the brink.

(Punch)