$30bn foreign loan will increase poverty – CCN

The Minister for Finance, Kemi Adeosun

The Christian Council of Nigeria, one of the five blocks in the Christian Association of Nigeria, has warned the Federal Government against hurrying to secure the controversial $30bn foreign loan because it could ruin the country in the future.
 The organisation said while the venture has helped some countries in the past, it had also destroyed others.
The CCN said if Nigeria took the loan it would amount to “structural adjustment coming back to ruin us further and increase poverty” adding that instead, government should embark on policies that would put food on the tables of the masses.
 The newly elected President of CCN, Dr. Benebo Fubara-Manuel, sounded the warning on Friday evening in Abuja, during its 29th General Assembly, saying the consequences of the loan should be taken into consideration.
He said, “The Federal Government should not be too much in a hurry to secure $30 billion infrastructure loan, but it should take time and ensure that we do not have a structural adjustment coming back to ruin us further and increase poverty.
 “This kind of venture has helped some countries before and it has also destroyed some countries. We need a secured country and a country that is free from corruption because there can be no economic progress if the issues of security and corruption are not properly addressed.”
Fubara-Manuel stressed that Nigeria needed a secured country, adding that a country that is free from corruption can’t even have the thriving of the Churches.

Source: Punch Newspapers