Human Rights lawyer, Femi Falana (SAN) has described as illegal the recent $3bn emergency crude repayment loan facility from the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) to stabilise Naira and reflate Nigeria’s economy.
He said despite signing the commitment, the intervention shows that the government is ‘gradually abandoning’ the ‘neo-liberal’ World Bank and International Monetary policy on removed of.petrol subsidy for Nigeria, is not working.
Falana said this on Friday during Channels Television Sunrise interview where he faulted the floating of Naira , which is not backed by Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Act.
He said, “The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has nor realized that the NNPCL is now a limited Liability Company and that it’s no longer a Parastatal. I have looked at the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA), I can’t find any provision in the Act that the NNPCL to take a loan for CBN. No! This illegality must stop in the interest of the Country.
According to him, “The government is now being forced to abandon its neo-liberal policies. We told them. The government is now forced to be saying that we do not want that. It means that the government is now beginning to realize that their IMF and World Bank petrol subsidy removal policy by the government ― will pauperise the Country and increase poverty.
“133 million Nigerians are living below starvation, according to the federal government. That number has increase nominally. As long as you continue to dollarize the economy, whatsoever you pay as the new minimum way will be destroyed by dollarization”, Falana said
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