OPEN LETTER TO SP AKPABIO
"OPEN LETTER TO SP AKPABIO:AS CHAIRMAN OF THE SEVEN INSTITUTIONS (NASS, NILDS, NASC, NABRO, NALTF, PCC, PENSIONS BOARD), PLEASE KINDLY PROVIDE US A SIMPLIFIED EXPLANATION OF THE TWO LOANS ($21.5M) REQUEST BY PBAT IN THE LIGHT OF EFCC RECOVERY OF OVER $967.5M) -PLEASE DON'T REFER US TO GO AND READ M-TEF OR THE WRITE-UP OF RENO OMOKRI)"
“OPEN LETTER TO SP AKPABIO:AS CHAIRMAN OF THE SEVEN INSTITUTIONS (NASS, NILDS, NASC, NABRO, NALTF, PCC, PENSIONS BOARD), PLEASE KINDLY PROVIDE US A SIMPLIFIED EXPLANATION OF THE TWO LOANS ($21.5M) REQUEST BY PBAT IN THE LIGHT OF EFCC RECOVERY OF OVER $967.5M) -PLEASE DON’T REFER US TO GO AND READ M-TEF OR THE WRITE-UP OF RENO OMOKRI)”
By
Dr. Tonye Clinton Jaja.
Your Excellency, President of the Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Distinguished Senator Godswill Obot Akpabio-GOA, Sir,
On behalf of financially illiterate members of the Nigerian public, I write to request a simplified explanation from your good self or any of the Seven institutions of which you are Statutory Chairman.
The seven (7) institutions are as follows:
1. National Assembly (NASS);
2. National Assembly Service Commission (NASC);
3. National Assembly Library Trust Fund (NALTF);
4. National Institute for Legislative and Democratic Studies (NILDS);
5. National Assembly Budget Research Office (NABRO);
6. Public Complaints Commission (PCC), the Nigerian Ombudsman; and
7. National Assembly Pensions Board.
There are two fold reasons why we are requesting a simplified explanation of the two most recent loan requests from President Bola Ahmed Tinubu (PBAT). The reasons are as follows:
1. Yesterday, in response to our request for explanation of the two loans, one of your unofficial Aides directed us to download and read the Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) and the writings of Reno Omokri;
2. We searched the websites of all seven (7) institutions of the National Assembly and we saw no writings on the subject-matter; and
3. We have just received online newspaper reports that the Federal Government of Nigeria through the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Independent Corrupt Practices and Related Offences Commission (ICPC) “Recovered Assets Worth $967.5 billion and ₦277bn” so why do we need to take loans?
Yesterday, a former Senior Aide to former President Muhammadu Buhari (PMB) sent us a write-up on the subject-matter of these two loans request by PBAT. It was written by Reno Omokri, last time we checked he is not an official staff or Aide of the office of the President of the Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
Also, we were directed to go online and read about the Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF). The problem is that majority of the 240,000,000 (two hundred and forty million) Nigerians are both numerically and financially illiterate, so even if we downloaded the said document on MTEF, we would still not understand the meaning and how it relates to the two loans request by PBAT.
Even though I hold a PhD degree, whenever I am writing on budget related matters, I still consult the expertise of my colleagues at the National Institute for Legislative Studies, they are PhD in economics degree holders.
Moreover, the staff of some (NABRO, NILDS and NALTF) of the seven (7) institutions of the National Assembly of which you are Chairman are experts in budget related matters therefore they ought to provide a simplified explanation of the said MTEF and the two loans request by PBAT.
Finally, the two loans reque6st by PBAT doesn’t make sense when viewed against the backdrop of the recent public announcement that reads as follows:
“AGF says that EFCC AND ICPC Recovered Assets Worth $967.5 billion and ₦277bn: So Why Is Tinubu Seeking A Loans of $21.5m and ₦758bn-It Doesn’t Make Sense”
“The Federal Government has revealed that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, and the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission, ICPC, have recovered looted funds in cash and assets totalling $ 967.5 billion and N277 billion.
The Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Prince Lateef Fagbemi, SAN, made this known on Tuesday, saying that the recovery was made in 2024 alone.
The AGF made disclosure at Asset Recovery Summit in the Ministry of Justice organised in Abuja during the unveiling of the National Central Database of Assets”. See
Please accept the assurances of my esteemed respects and regards.
Yours faithfully,
Dr. Tonye Clinton Jaja,
29th May 2025.
