The Upper Chamber on Thursday approved President Muhammadu Buhari’s $22.7bn loan request.
While the matter was being debated, Enyinnaya Abaribe, minority leader, warned against considering all the recommendations on the loan at once.
He suggested that it should be done “item by item”, but Senate President Ahmad Lawan disagreed with him.
The process of approving the loan by Senators however led to vehement disagreements in the upper chamber.
While some Senators supported the approval, others kicked against it.
Efforts were earlier made bY Senator Adamu Aliero (Kebbi Central) to postpone the consideration of the report to another legislative day.
However, the President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan, said that such a postponement would be counterproductive as the findings and recommendations of the report would have already been debated in the media before the consideration.
He advised that the report be considered to forestall such an eventuality
The Chairman Senate Committee on Senate Committee on Local and Foreign Debts, Senator Clifford Ordia (Edo Central) presented the report.
As Lawan moved to subject the two recommendations in the report to vote and approval, the Minority Leader, Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe raised a point of order.
Abaribe said that it would be necessary to subject the various components of the loan to voting, especially the amounts and the lending countries.
Lawan disagreed with him and said that the Senate would only vote on the two recommendations contained in the report.
Abaribe said: “We are going to pass a loan of $22.7billion for which we are being denied the privilege to express our reservations. You are putting us in a very impossible position.
“There are some aspect of this loan that we object to. I want to ask on behalf of our colleagues here that we take these items one by one and vote on them.”
Lawan in his response said: “You (Minority Leader) have not been denied of your privilege.
“I don’t want the discussion on this loan to degenerate into partisanship. My action was was not an attempt to muscle you.”
