Bode George appeals to foreign nations not to lend more money to Buhari
Chief Olabode George, a Deputy National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has appealed to foreign nations not to lend President Muhammadu Buhari any money, saying the wastages in Nigeria is alarming.
Speaking in a chat with the press on the $29.96billion 2016-2018 external borrowing plan sent by President Buhari to the Senate for its consideration and approval, George said foreign nations will be laughing at Nigeria for borrowing money while a lot of financial wastages was going on in the country. He said some of the wastages include adverts placed in Cable News Network (CNN) by local companies such as Globacom, Zenith Bank and Dangote. President Buhari wants to go and borrow money now. They will ask him ‘look at the wastages in your country’. Why should they give him money? They should give him nothing. How many African countries do you see these kinds of thing? All these unnecessary adverts on CNN by Nigerian companies on products that are purely Nigerian is pure wastage. ABSA bank in South Africa, have you ever seen them on CNN? Yet, their capital base is bigger than all Nigerian banks put together. So, what is this egocentrism all about? There are people who are hungry in this country. All those money wasted on adverts will feed millions of people. I think the federal government should clamp down on them. For every one dollar, you spent on CNN adverts, you create a special purse for one dollar being put there. That money can then be used for skill acquisition for younger people. It is wasteful and egocentric. We are the people who are buying your products, satisfy us and stop wasting the money. Your systems are not healthy, bad network, poor data services and so on. Look at Tony Elumelu doing adverts on CNN saying he is satisfying Africa. Has he satisfied his village? What about the poverty in his village? I want to go with him to his village and see the level of poverty in that place. They are making the rest of the world to hate us,” he said.