We must borrow if Buhari’s plan to link all states by rail is to be achieved- Amaechi

The Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, has revealed that the Federal Government needed to secure needed loans in order to achieve President Muhammadu Buhari’s plan of connecting the entire states of the federation via rail network.

Amaechi revealed that in line with the president’s plan, he had issued a directive that all the 36 state capitals be connected by rail in the ongoing railway projects.

Amaechi disclsoed this on Thursday at a meeting with the Chairman, Senate Committee on Local and Foreign Debts, Shehu Sani.

He was accompanied by the ministers of Finance, Kemi Adeosun,  Budget and National Planning, Udoma Udoma, and Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola.

The meeting was in connection with President Buhari’s loan request of $5.5 billion sent to the Senate for consideration.

Amaechi stated that the central rail line project connecting several communities of northern and southern Nigeria would be completed in June of next year.

Read also: APC will do ‘everything it has promised’-Osinbajo

He revealed that seventeen coaches were expected to arrive in November, and out of the number, 10 would be deployed to Abuja-Kaduna rail line while the remaining seven will be deployed to the Itakpe-Warri rail line.

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The transport minister also said that part of the money being requested for approval by the Senate was to execute the rail projects covering Kano-Kaduna, and Lagos-Ibadan networks.

Sani had earlier advised that if Nigeria “must borrow, it must borrow responsibly”.

He said, “the committee has the mandate to examine the merits and otherwise of the current loan request of $5.5 billion of the president.

“If we must bequeath to the future generation a pile of debt, it must be justified with commensurate infrastructural proof of the value of the debt.

“The payment plan of this debt will undoubtedly last the length of our lifetimes and possibly beyond.

“We must leave behind a legacy that will appease and answer the questions the next generation of Nigerians will ask.
Commenting on the loan request, the Director-General, Debt Management Office, Patience Oniha, explained that the loans had sustainable benefits that would live beyond the present generation of Nigerians.

“What we should take away is that we are going into projects whose benefits don’t go away.

“The roads don’t go away, the schools don’t go away, and the hospitals don’t go away but all that we need to do is to maintain them properly and that is the explanation I want to make on that”, she said.

 

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