Politics

God bless whoever stole the budget-Etcetera writes….

Published

9 years ago

January 16, 2016

It is very hard to explain to a non-Nigerian abroad that Nigeria is a country of over 200 million people. He/she would wonder how a country of over 200 million citizens became so tamed to the point of stupidity — that a few individuals could keep millions of people locked in hell for over 20 years would have been termed impossible, but as the world has come to know, there’s nothing impossible in Nigeria. We hold the record of the most persevering people on earth. We have an unbelievable threshold for endurance.

One of the reasons why I think Nigeria may never recover from her present predicament is because as a people, Nigerians love poverty. This is the only country in the world where a politician steals money and the people provide tangible reasons why the politician is actually supposed to steal.

This is the only country in the world where it has become acceptable that whoever gets into government is advised to loot with impunity. Looting of government funds is now fashionably done on a turn-by-turn basis. Listening to Nigerians defend their kinsmen who have looted the country is very sad: Abi if you get there, you sef no go chop? Abeg leave my brother make him chop him own, after all when your brother dey there, himsef too chop. Life na turn by turn. This is the mentality of the average Nigerian on the street.

If not for our level of docility, our government wouldn’t have the effrontery to tell us that they spent millions of naira to open a Facebook account. The National Assembly wouldn’t embarrass us by asking the founders of Facebook down here to set up their Facebook accounts. A governor wouldn’t tell us he spent N72m of taxpayers’ money to build a personal website and still be made a minister of the federal republic in this current dispensation.

The hard and soft copies of the 2016 budget documents President Muhammadu Buhari handed over to the National Assembly on December 22, 2015 was declared missing a couple of days back and Nigerians have been screaming like banshees how the country had been placed at the forefront of ridicule, forgetting that we have been living in ridicule for ages. Is the shame of a missing budget more embarrassing than the content of the budget itself?

With all the fight against corruption, what has changed? Have the police stopped collecting money illegally on our streets? Has impunity stopped in our petrol stations where fuel is blatantly and flagrantly sold above the recommended price? Has the leadership of Nigeria stopped living in comfort while the people live in poverty? Must we continue funding 10 airplanes in the midst of gargantuan poverty? The exchange rate is at an unprecedented high of N305 to a dollar and the minimum wage of N18,000 is about $64 and this same government has been advising us on the need to be prudent in our spending while public officials have failed to reduce their level of comfort. Even the proposed 2016 budget submitted to the joint session of the National Assembly showed that Buhari himself failed to heed to his own advice of being prudent.

How do you consider the stealing of the proposed budget as an embarrassment when President Buhari and Vice-President Osinbajo will be spending N2.2bn on travels and transport, foodstuffs and catering materials, refreshment and meals as well as honorarium in the 2016 fiscal year? This is a figure that is N710m higher than what was budgeted for the same under the immediate past government in 2015. A further breakdown of the budget for the presidency also includes general renovation of the Guest House at N387m, complete furnishing of the Guest House at N45m, purchase of computers for N27.5m and the construction and provision of recreational facilities for N764m.

A sum of N3.6bn was budgeted for BMW saloon cars for principal officers and another N189m was allocated for tyres for operational vehicles in the presidency. What is more embarrassing to you? That over 300 girls were kidnapped and nothing has been done to bring them back? Is it not more embarrassing that our soldiers are being slaughtered by a bunch of untrained terrorists because of the corruption within the military hierarchy? Is it not more embarrassing that the PDP is already calling for the impeachment of the president just after nine months of assuming office?

Abeg abeg, May God bless whoever stole the budget. He/she is a patriot. I believe he/she, like everyone else in the country, must have lost hope in our useless National Assembly and can’t trust them to cut down the discrepancies in the budget.

News

Senators’ Monthly N29m Earning Is Not Enough For The Demands and Challenges of Their Office – Ex Lawmaker, Ishaku Abbo

Published

3 weeks ago

August 20, 2024

lagoslately

In an interview on Arise TV on Sunday, Abbo stated that his salary and allowances while serving as a senator totaled N14.4 million, while today senators earn up to N29 million.

He said, “When I was in the Senate, cumulatively, all the allowances were N14.4 million per month. You have a wardrobe allowance, a vehicle allowance, and other allowances put together that were N14.4 million, including the N1 million salary.

“It is about N29 million now. N29 million looks big on paper. I’m saying this as a honest man. I’m not trying to support the National Assembly, and I’ve been a member of that vilified institution for five years. I am not standing with them, but I’ll bear the facts on the table.”

“I had a case of just one person I took to the hospital; I spent N14 million on one person.

“And every month, from all over Adamawa State and other states, my office was besieged with people looking for help.

“I had to start calling some state governors to help me with cases that are being brought from their states into my office.”

Abbo further alleged that some state governors go home with up to N1 billion for state responsibilities.

“From N14 million, I was paying for people’s scholarships, subsiding people’s expenses while a state governor in this country is going home with over N700 million security vote every month, some go home with N1 billion to do other security issues,” he said.

“I am poorer, much poorer as a man when I became a politician than I was before I became a politician,” Abbo added.

News

JUST IN: Chinese Firm Releases Seized Presidential Jet For Tinubu’s France Trip

Published

4 weeks ago

August 16, 2024

lagoslately

Chinese firm Zhongshan Fucheng Industrial Investment Co. Ltd. has released one of the three Nigerian Airbus A330 aircraft that were detained in France following a court order from a Paris judicial court.

We earlier reported that the firm had seized a Dassault Falcon 7X, a Boeing 737-7N6/BBJ, and an Airbus A330-243 belonging to the Nigerian federal government, which were stationed at Paris-Le Bourget and Basel-Mulhouse airports.

In a statement on Friday, the company announced that it will release one of the seized jets as a “goodwill gesture” ahead of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s upcoming meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron.

The firm indicated that President Tinubu will be permitted to use the Airbus A330, which is currently detained in France due to the French court order obtained by Zhongshan, for his trip to France.

News

Protesters Carted Away Ganduje’s Corruption Trial Documents – Gov Yusuf.

Published

4 weeks ago

August 14, 2024

lagoslately

Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf of Kano State has said that all the alleged corruption cases filed by the APC National Chairman, Ganduje, residing at the State High Court, have been carted away by the violent Protesters

Kano State High Court of Justice was among hundreds of other places vandalized and set ablaze by the End Bad Government Protesters when they came out in their hundreds against hunger and starvation in the country.

However, Governor Yusuf who paid an assessment visit to the State High Court, on Wednesday, expressed worry that the corruption charges case files of former Governor Ganduje have been taken away from the court.