THE Presidential Candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), Mr Donald Duke, on Monday raised the alarm over the nation’s growing foreign debts arising from the Republic of China and other countries of the World without meaningful development to show for it.
The former Cross River governor who disclosed this to newsmen in Abuja yesterday at Maiden Press Conference at the Party’s National Secretariat stated that the Federal Government was taking foreign loans without any consideration for its side effects because of the low-interest rates attached to such loans.
This was just as he lamented that the 30 per cent interest on loans in the country was making it hard for businesses to grow and generate employment in the Society but assured that the shortcomings of the present administration would be things of history if voted into power come 2019.
According to him, “Indebtedness to any nation is worrisome, not just China. The concept of independence is being able to stand on your own, you are not independent if you are indebted to other nations. We need to strengthen our own local trade and when you trade, there should be a balance
“You cannot always import without exporting, you cannot always you breathe in and without breathing out, that’s the law of nature, there must be harmony. If you keep on importing and you are not exporting to have a balance of trade, then your country would haemorrhage, we are haemorrhaging.”
The SDP presidential candidate insisted that the nation could produce nearly all the things that were being imported if power and banks credit were available and closely monitor to ensure their proper utilisation as well provide a conducive atmosphere in the Country.
“All the things that we import, can’t we make them in Nigeria? Each time you import from overseas, you are sustaining a job overseas. Our government goes to countries like China to borrow because it is cheaper there, we must put an end to this shameful act.
“But you can also do the same thing here, you can also regulate interest rates here and ensure that credit is affordable, we need to indigenize this economy, built by Nigerians for Nigerians,” the lawyer stated.
Duke stated that if elected in 2019, his government would address gas flaring, make credit affordable and available to Nigerians and invest in the housing sector which he said could generate millions of jobs.
According to him, “Already, if you take the housing sector, you have over N17 million housing shortage. If you decide to build one million houses every year, you would employ over 10-15m people, it would still take you 17 years to catch up. So, even though it is a problem, the sector still provides opportunities
“Don’t tie the growth of your country to the prices of oil because like every other commodity, it fluctuates. Let it be tied to real growth and our population provides incredible opportunity for growth,” he said.
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