A former Head of State and national leader of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Maj. Gen Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), on Monday described the ongoing national conference as a waste of public funds.
He said the huge amount budgeted for the delegates and the entire process should have been put to judicious use in other pressing areas because the National Assembly was in a better position to do what the conference was trying to achieve.
This formed part of the former military ruler’s brief remarks at the opening of the maiden edition of the Progressive Governors-Legislative-Civil Society Roundtable, held in Abuja.
According to Buhari: “What I express about the conference is a personal view, that it is the duty of the National Assembly.
“The elite would have got themselves together and ask the National Assembly to sponsor a bill for some amendments to the constitution.
“I do not think that at this time when governments are finding it difficult to pay salaries of workers, it can afford about N7bn to waste on a conference”.
Giving credence to Buhari’s views, the Senator representing Kwara Central in the upper legislative chamber, Dr. Bukola Saraki said the current administration needed to be more transparent in the management of public funds.
He noted that the lack of transparency was partly responsible for the impunity of the Peoples Democratic Party-led Federal Government.
According to Saraki, it is only in Nigeria that a president can afford to commit an impeachable offence by spending huge sums of government revenue outside appropriation without consequences.
He added that the money being spent on the ongoing national conference was not contained in the 2014 budget.
“I told my colleagues that it might probably be coming from the missing $20bn”, Saraki stated.
The former Kwara governor, who first blew the lid on the fraud in the fuel subsidy regime, warned that subsidy posed a grave danger to the economy itself.
Saraki said, “Let us not allow anybody to deceive us, the problem is not the subsidy but it’s management.
“The country does not use more than 35 million liters of PMS while a look at the cost profile shows a huge difference that indicates that we consume more than 35 million liters”, he said.
CONFAB IS A WASTE, A DELIBRATE PUNCTURE IN THE NATION’S TREASURY FOR THOSE WITH ALREADY BLOATED ACCOUNT.
The #30,000.00 per day for daily meal is beyond the reach of an average Nigerians. It is enough to feed a family of six beyond a month. How many Nigerians are earning #18.000.00 the minimum wage per month? How many employers are complying with the rule of minimum wages.
The #4,000,000.00 per month is more tthan gross take home of a university senior lecturer. Multiply this by three, it is beyond a university professor for two years. What exactly will they offer at the end of the conference that warrant such huge waste, #7,000,000,000.00 within three months.
Jonathan’s administration is callous, wicked, insensitive and dismissive to the plight of suffering masses.
The huge amount is enough to have a far reaching effect on poverty alleviation if judiciously utilize. It could have had a far reaching effect on accommodation for masses. It could have had a far reaching effect on self employment scheme for unemployed graduates.
The behavior of FGN on this confab indicates that this nation has money, we are just being deceived. The present government is deceitful, extravagant and vagabound.
The main issue at the confab is federalism. A concept that had been in our constitution since 1979. The past administrations refused to adopt it due to their selfish political, social and economic selfishness and ambitions.
This is an issue that NASS could have been called upon to handle and add it into our constitution. Afterall they are already earning enough to justify the work.
We elected those in NASS going by INEC results. Therefore theyes are representing the public. On the contrary, members of this Confab were selected, bulk of who are FGN representatives and others by some bodies. They are not true representative of the public. We did not elect them. They either lobby for it or are there to influence or implement some hidden agendas.
Most of the people constituting the confab are with their self seeking ambitions. It was no surprise they want allowance for their personal secretary (PA). In order to make reckless demand and make somethings secret they are now issuing threatening statement on confab registered journalists.
It is just the beginning of what to expect. At the end more time will be demanded. A week gone for merry making. We may end up spending more than #7,000,000,000.00 acheiving nothing. I would have ended up by saying ‘good luck’, but I can’t see anything good about the luck.