Buhari’s N4.8bn budget for clinic, website embarrassing –Activists
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Fisayo Falodi and Gbenro Adeoye
Rights activists on Friday described the
N4bn proposed for Aso Rock clinic and N800m for a website in the 2016
budget as embarrassing and abnormal.
The activists claimed that the proposals were the direct opposite of President Muhammadu Buhari’s change mantra.
President, Rights Monitoring Group and
Country Director, Centre on Convention for Democratic Integrity, Mr.
Femi Aduwo, said proposing such a huge amount for Aso Rock clinic and
website indicated that the President’s change mantra was just by name
and not by action.
He said, “If N4bn is proposed for Aso
Rock clinic in a year and the facility is meant for the Very Important
People, I want to believe that the VIPs go beyond the President and the
Vice-President. For example, if you have an equipped clinic in Aso Rock,
all the former presidents, former ministers and former governors can go
there for medical checkup, but as it were today, we know that all the
former presidents and former governors don’t use Aso Rock clinic. This
is an Aso Rock clinic that could not take care of former President Umaru
Yar’Adua when he was sick.
“So, if you propose N4bn to be spent and
there are elements of trust and transparency in the spending, there is
no problem with that, but if you propose N10 for the project and the
money is looted or stolen, we will still go back to square one.
Aduwo added that it was shameful that
N800m was proposed for a website in this modern era, when the website of
the United States President, Barack Obama, cost less than $1m.
Another activist and lawyer, Mr. Ebun
Adegboruwa, urged Nigerians to join him to persuade the President to
reduce the budget for the Aso Rock clinic and the website.
While recalling that Nigerians were
angry when former President Goodluck Jonathan budgeted N1bn for feeding
in 2014, Adegboruwa asked Buhari to be a “shining example of a Spartan
leader who is not interested in living a life of luxury at the expense
of the people he was elected to govern. He should let the charity begin
at home.”
He said, “There is a consensus that the
budget is not that of change expected from the President. The change
means you don’t want to do things the way they were used to be done.
“Though I accept the fact that the
Office of the President deserves all the glamour and the state of the
art equipment, the amount budgeted for Aso Rock renovation, for website,
for Aso Rock clinic, for maintenance of generator is becoming like a
scandal to us as a nation. This is very bad and I urge the President to
scale down the items of luxury; the items that have no explanation.
“The President has no record of any
medical illness. When the campaign was on and it was alleged that he had
health challenges, he denied it flatly. So, who is going to use the
N4bn Aso Rock clinic? The vice-president and his wife are hale and
hearty. So, who is going to use the facility? This is not a good example
at all. I believe that the President will listen to the cry of
Nigerians and scale down the budget.”
The Executive Chairman, Coalition
Against Corrupt Leaders, Mr. Debo Adeniran, said some of the proposals
in the budget were embarrassing.
Adeniran said some Nigerians, who had
expected Buhari’s government to be prudent, would be disappointed by the
proposals, which he considered as outrageous.
He said, “The costs of many items in the
budget are very outrageous and it is very embarrassing that a
government that claims to be prudent in spending is allocating so much
money to some little items.
“If one ministry plans to upgrade its
website for as much as N800m, then how much would all the federal
ministries upgrade their websites or set up new ones?
“This is a country that is asking
average Nigerians to tighten their belts; why should it be that it is at
the level of the people that we tighten our belts while those in
authorities will be losing theirs? It is uncalled for.”
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