The government needs money, according to presidential spokesman Femi Adesina, to pay off its obligations.
The Presidency revealed on Wednesday that President Muhammadu Buhari had given the go-ahead for last-minute funding to be handed over to Bola Tinubu’s administration a few days before because the government need the money to pay off debts.
On Channels Television’s Politics Today, Femi Adesina, the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, made this statement on the performance of Buhari’s eight years in office.
“A wicked man pays and owes nothing, according to the Bible. The Bible claims that you are a bad man if you owe money yet refuse to pay it back. Why shouldn’t the government pay if it is responsible for all of those debts? It ought to pay.
“The government is functioning,” he stated. “The government has a mandate from a period to a certain time, and that mandate was from 2019 to 2023.
In a letter to the Senate earlier on Wednesday, the President asked for permission to request payment of the judgment debt in the amount of $566,754,584, £98,526 and N226 billion.
According to Channels Television, the Federal Government issued promissory notes in order to pay the debt.
Four months after 648 lawsuits were filed against the President and other Federal Government parastatals, Senate President Ahmad Lawan read the President’s letter of request during plenary on Wednesday.
At the last Federal Executive Council meeting before his resignation on Wednesday, Buhari did not dismiss his cabinet, and Adesina claimed that there is no law requiring the president to do so.
“The President will decide. Each individual has an own sense of style, and the President has that. He wants them to put forth their all-out effort. We are aware of certain presidents who, in accordance with their own preferences, would resign after the most recent FEC meeting.
The presidential adviser said that the Buhari government was inclusive of all viewpoints and did not suppress dissident voices.
“Critics are free to express their opinions and to judge works for themselves. Fact sheets that demonstrate how hard the government worked and how much it accomplished have been released, he said.
