The 10th Senate, led by Godswill Akpabio, experienced its first rowdy session as the Senate President rejected a motion to discuss the alleged uneven distribution of N500 billion credit facilities to Micro, Small, and Medium Scale Enterprises (MSMEs) by the Development Bank of Nigeria (DBN).
The Chief Whip of the Senate, Mohammed Ali Ndume, raised the issue during the plenary session, pointing out that a similar motion was raised in the previous session but was not concluded before the dissolution of the ninth Senate. Ndume sought permission to reintroduce the motion for debate.
However, Senator Solomon Adeola disagreed with Ndume’s assertion that the matter was not concluded in the last Senate. Adeola claimed that a report was prepared on the motion and sent to the Presidency for implementation, based on his conversation with the chairman of the ad-hoc committee investigating the issue.
This led to a heated exchange, with Senator Aliu Ahmed Wadada expressing anger over the alleged imbalance in the loan distribution, particularly in his senatorial district and the entire North. Wadada objected to the Senate President’s attempt to rule him out of order.
Despite the uproar, the Senate President ruled to step down the motion for further consultation, emphasizing that it could be reintroduced at a later time with a substantive motion.
Senator Sani Musa, the Chairman of the Ad-hoc committee in the previous Senate, was called to clarify the situation. Musa explained that the report on the matter had been submitted after consultations with relevant agencies and that Ndume had signed the report along with other committee members. Ndume countered, claiming that he had not seen the report and was ambushed into signing it.
Ultimately, the motion was stepped down, and the Senate President assured the members that it could be reintroduced in the future.
The motion, which had been scheduled for debate and was sponsored by Ndume, Senator Bomai Ibrahim Mohammed, and Ya’u Sahabi, focused on the alleged uneven disbursement of a half-trillion-naira loan to the six geo-political zones by the Development Bank of Nigeria. It highlighted that only 11% of the loan went to the 19 states in the North, while Lagos alone received 47%.
The issue was previously addressed by the Minister of Finance, Zainab Ahmed, who promised a review of the criteria used by development banks to disburse loans to MSMEs to ensure geographical spread while maintaining sustainability.
