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| Buhari |
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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