Femi Gbajabiamila, the Speaker of Nigeria’s House of Representatives has requested debt cancellation for African countries, as against debt relief or review.
The Honourable Speaker made this request recently in Abuja while briefing pressmen on the sidelines of a two-day Conference of Speakers and Heads of African Parliaments (CoSAP) that took place in Nigeria’s capital city, Abuja.
According to him, the Conference resolved to seek debt forgiveness for African countries from creditor-nations.
He said: “We talked about debt cancellation and debt forgiveness. We felt parliament should be involved and speak as one voice and speak to our creditors and make a case as to why we needed debt forgiveness.
“We also agreed that in doing so, we are going to push for a tripartite agreement between the creditors, the executive other governments, and the legislators, the reason being that even if your debt is forgiven and funds are freed up to be diverted in other areas like health, education, your creditors will need to assure that the institution that is responsible for appropriation is involved and that is the case we are making.
