Makinde questions Tinubu’s Saudi prayer trip, challenges FG over borrowing

By Ayobami Okerinde The presidential candidate of the Allied Peoples Movement (APM), Seyi Makinde, has questioned the Federal Government’s decision to seek fresh foreign loans despite rising external reserves and claims of improved revenue collection. Makinde spoke on Thursday at the party’s South-East town hall meeting in Enugu, where he also criticised President Bola Tinubu’s planned trip to Saudi Arabia to pray for Nigeria, urging the government to be transparent about the country’s economic situation. “I was reading on social media yesterday night up until this morning that our president is travelling to Saudi Arabia to pray for Nigeria. Prayers are answered even in this country; we will stay here, and we will pray for Nigeria and also our leaders because Nigeria belongs to all of us,” he said.

Makinde’s comments came after the President’s Special Adviser on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, announced on Wednesday that Tinubu would travel to Makkah on Thursday to perform Umrah, an Islamic pilgrimage, and pray for Nigeria’s peace, unity, stability, and continued progress. The president subsequently departed for the trip on Thursday. Makinde urged the president and his administration to address the country’s challenges honestly, saying prayers should be accompanied by transparency about the state of the economy. “They should pray for Nigeria and stop all the deceit and tell Nigerians the exact true situation of things so that as you are praying, our prayers will not be in vain,” he said. The Oyo State governor also questioned the government’s decision to seek additional borrowing despite claims of improved revenue collection and the country’s growing external reserves. Vanguard reported that President Tinubu recently, in a letter to the Senate, sought the…