The presidential candidate of the Labour Party in the February 25 election, Peter Obi, on Monday, kicked against the inclusion of a presidential yacht and the outrageous provisions for the office of the first lady in the 2023 supplementary budget, News About Nigeria reports.
The former governor of Anambra State said this during a world press conference at the Labour Party’s headquarters in Abuja,
Obi noted that such a decision reveals how uncaring and insensitive President Bola Tinubu’s led administration is to the sufferings Nigerians are facing.
Obi added that the supplementary budget is meant for very important national welfare needs of the people that were not captured originally in the budget or do not have adequate funding.
He also lamented how it is now being channelled towards enriching the government of the day with little to nothing allocated for the people.
In his words, “The United Nations has warned in the past week that 26.5 million Nigerians will go hungry next year. This is an issue of national importance that can go into a supplementary budget.
“However, the fact that we have a supplementary budget for cars for the first lady’s office shows that the government is uncaring and we’re in deep trouble. Bringing in the first lady’s office not in the constitution is more troubling; all funds meant for the first lady’s office should be channelled and used to address issues of the girl child in the country.”
He further stated that it is uncalled for to spend huge amounts of money on vehicles for federal lawmakers when there are cheaper alternatives that can be used for the same purpose.
The Labour Party flagbearer in the presidential election also explained that, as governor of Anambra State, he used Peugeot vehicles as official cars for all government officials and rejected the bulletproof cars earlier ordered for his official use.
Obi said that in line with the present national circumstances of suffering and poverty, which the ruling party are blind to, there is a compelling need for strong political opposition, which is why he will remain in the opposition.
According to him, this is because of the policies and the governance modalities that his party campaigned for, especially reducing the cost of governance, moving the nation from consumption to production, reducing inflation, ending insecurity, promoting the rule of law, and stabilising the Nigerian currency; are clearly not the priorities of the present administration.
He also alleged that the current administration is not interested in achieving Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which, according to him, will, in turn, build the nation.
