Peter Gregory Obi, the Labour Party 2023 presidential candidate has expressed his concerns regarding the recently approved supplementary budget, stating that it lacks provisions for pressing national welfare needs and emergencies.
In a statement delivered through his X platform, titled, “Observations on the Supplementary Budget.” Obi emphasized the importance of a supplementary budget addressing critical issues that were not initially covered in the main budget or lacked adequate funding.
Obi pointed out that despite the impending food crisis, as highlighted by the United Nations and the World Food Programme, the supplementary budget failed to allocate resources for this pressing issue.
The statement read, “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 added.
“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 pending catastrophe can request for supplementary budget provisions to cushion those under threat,” he emphasized.
READ ALSO:Nigeria Will Hold Its National Population Census Soon – Tinubu
He criticized the inclusion of luxurious items saying, “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.”
Obi further raised concerns about the government’s lackadaisical attitude and financial approach, he revealed, “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,” he concluded.