$1Billion Loan: Money Will Not Combat Boko Haram Menace, Says APC

The All Progressives Congress (APC) has said what is required to tackle the Boko Haram menace effectively is new imaginative thinking and not money.

The opposition party which was reacting to the Federal Government’s request for an external loan of $1bn, which equals approximately N165bn for Army equipment and modernization said on Tuesday, July 22, that the government should complement the military campaign against Boko Haram with political, social and economic measures.

In a statement signed by the National Publicity Secretary of the party, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, in Abuja, the APC said that the root causes of the Boko Haram crisis are deep in the years of bad governance that have created an army of unemployed youth in the North-East, Punch reports.

Related: Jonathan Will Have To Wait For $1 Billion Loan Till September

The opposition party which said it is not opposed to procuring modern weapons and other needs for the military, is of the view that $1bn dollars will not solve anything as money allocated for defence, security and the police in times past yielded no result.

"Between 2010 and 2014, a total of $14bn has been allocated for defence, security and the police. This year alone, the total sum is $14bn. Now, if $14bn has not clipped the wings of Boko Haram in five years, what difference can $1bn make if thrown into the crisis in the same old way?

“If the Federal Government has not accounted for how it spent $14bn allocated to the security, defence and police in the past five years, why should it be given the green light to borrow another $1bn? If the said $14bn has not done much in upgrading military and security facilities in five years, what impact can $1bn suddenly make? These are some of the questions we want the National Assembly to ask before giving the Federal Government the go ahead to plunge Nigeria into another round of external debts," the statement read.

However, the president will have to wait for the funds at least till the end of September 2014, as the House of Representatives are on their annual recess from July 18, 2014.

Source: Legit.ng