The Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) has berated the spending power of the federal government, describing it as a reckless extravagance that could plunge the country into bankruptcy if left unchecked.
Asides expressing surprise that a government that has not positively influenced the life of Nigerians will engage in such “totally unacceptable and utterly shameful” wastage, it observed that the government has now beaten its own record of profligacy by deciding to build a N2.2bn Banquet Hall at the Aso Rock Presidential Villa, which FCT Minister Bala Mohammed, attempted to justify by saying other smaller countries have better Banquet Halls near their presidential residences.
“It is interesting that a minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria is comparing the country with smaller countries when it comes to justifying a project that will only benefit a few elite,” ACN lamented in a statement issued in Ilorin on Tuesday by Alhaji Lai Mohammed, its national publicity secretary.
“Does the minister know that the citizens of the so-called smaller countries enjoy uninterrupted electricity supply? Does he know that the citizens of those countries don’t have to queue up endlessly for petrol and kerosene, that they don’t have to depend on Okada for transportation, and that they have no road as terrible as Lagos-Ibadan expressway?
“In any case, nothing can justify the decision to spend such a huge amount of money on a Banquet Hall in a country where many go to bed hungry most nights, where youth unemployment is at a high 46.5 per cent and where projects that could help Nigeria achieve the MDGs, less than three years to the target date, are almost non-existent.”
ACN also condemned the petroleum minister’s decision to spend N6.5bn on “sensitising” the public on the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB), the president’s propensity to travel to international meetings with a bloated entourage and the continuous allocation of huge funds to purchase aircrafts for the presidential fleet, saying “they all fit into the mindless profligacy” of the Jonathan administration
“One would have expected that a government headed by a man who himself has publicly acknowledged his humble beginnings will be less profligate and more inclined to allocating funds to developmental projects that will uplift the standard of living of his compatriots, including ensuring better security for them,” the statement continued.
While lamenting that the country has been “witnessing the exact opposite under the discombobulated Jonathan administration,” ACN advised the ruling federal administration to retrace its steps by “spending the nation’s scarce resources only on projects that can benefit the masses, rather than a few elite” and urged all Nigerians to “join in calling the government to order before it runs the country aground.”
