Presidential candidate of the Labour Party in the 2023 presidential election has described President Bola Tinubu as insensitive to the plight of suffering Nigerians for allocating key funds for the purchase of presidential yacht and jets in the supplementary budget recently passed by the national assembly.
Obi stated this in a statement he signed shortly after Tinubu signed the N2.17 trillion Supplementary Budget for 2023 into law.
The budget was passed a week ago by the National Assembly after consideration within 24 hours.
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Raising key issues concerning the budget, Obi observed that “a supplementary budget is a budget made for very important national welfare needs of the people which were not captured originally in the main budget or do not have adequate funding.
“Admittedly, some items in the current budget may not have taken into consideration the needs of a new administration, but it is expected that a supplementary budget this late in the financial year should reflect mostly urgent items of national welfare.
“Sadly, the most pressing national needs and emergencies have not featured in the supplementary budget that was just announced by the government.
“For example, the United Nations and World Food Programme have recently alerted that up to 6.5 million Nigerians will go hungry next year.”
He argued that “This number is largely from among citizens in Sokoto, Adamawa, Borno, Yobe, and Zamfara States.
“A caring Government in order to plan for the mitigation of such a pending catastrophe can request for supplementary budget provisions to cushion those under threat.
“No item of urgent social welfare has yet featured in the supplementary budget being orchestrated by this government.
“Instead, the items being made to dominate public discourse on the budget include a mysterious Presidential Yacht, Presidential Jets, the furnishing of already lavishly furnished presidential quarters and offices, fleets of luxury SUVs etc.
“This portrays a Government that is totally uncaring and insensitive to the suffering of the majority, and indifferent to the mood of the nation.”
He lamented that “The government’s overall attitude does not indicate that it is aware that the country is in a huge crisis, nor is the government in tune with the plight of the generality of our people.
“Even worse is the fact that most of the funding for these profligate expenditures will be largely borrowed.
“The least that Nigerians expect from the government at this difficult moment is empathy and realism, not lavish indulgence,” Obi said.