$22.7bn loan: Senate under fire for excluding South East, Edo

The South-East is practically livid over its exclusion from infrastructural development captured in the $22.7 billion loan that the Senate recently approved for the Federal Government.
Meanwhile, more facts have emerged on how some sections of the country were not captured in the borrowing plan.
A document made available to journalists showed how the Federal Government allegedly excluded states in the South-East and Edo State from the loan.
The document also revealed that, despite the omission, the Senate, with at least 15 senators from the South-East, did not not protest the decision to sideline some sections of the country from benefiting from the $22.7 billion loan.
Last week, President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan, resisted attempts by senators to debate on details of the loan as he cleared the way for the approval of the document amid protests and uproar.
A breakdown of projects to be funded from the loan indicated that, in the South-West, about $200 million would be invested in the power transmission project for Lagos and Ogun; South-South, East-West Road would gulp $800m and an additional $3.47bn would be spent on the rail system modernisation and coastal railway project for Calabar-Port Harcourt-Onne deep seaport segment.
In the North-East, the projects include the multi-sectoral crises recovery programme that will take $200m, the northeast Nigeria integrated social protection, basic health, education, nutrition services and livelihood restoration project, where $100m would be invested, and the Lake Chad Basin Commission, with an investment of $13m.
In the North-West, the Kano-Lagos railway modernisation project, and Kano-Ibadan double track would take $5.53bn; vocational training in the power sector, $50m; FCT, Lagos, Ogun. Kano, Plateau, Niger, Enugu, Kaduna and Cross River economic transformation programme for results, $35m;
National Information and Communication Technology Infrastructural Backbone Project (NICTIB) phase II, $328.1m; Lagos, Abuja, Ibadan, Akure, Maiduguri, Lokoja, Kaduna, Akwanga, Bauchi, Kano, Katsina. Health system project, $110m, Katsina; rural water supply and sanitation ($150m, North-East, and Plateau); Development of the mining industry ($150m, nationwide).
North-Central – Staple crops processing zone support project ($100m, Kogi); Greater Abuja water supply project ($381m; FCT); Abuja mass rail transit project, phase 2 ($1.25bn;
FCT); Mambila hydro-electric power project ($4.8bn; Taraba); Integrated programme for development and adaption to climate change in the Niger Basin ($6m; Nigeria and Niger Republic).