The anger was expressed by the Arewa
Consultative Forum, the Northern Elders Forum and the Civil Society
Legislative and Advocacy Centre and the Anti-Corruption Network and
activists.
They condemned the allocations for the
Villa Zoo and the amount budgeted for President Goodluck Jonathan and
Vice-President N
amadi Sambo’s local and foreign trips.
According to them, the allocations are
not only wasteful, they boldly signpost government’s insensitivity
to the plight of Nigerians.
The groups were reacting to media
reports that the Presidency had budgeted N1.6bn for a new jet; N34.5m
for two animals for the Villa Zoo; N2.4bn for Jonathan and Sambo’s
foreign and local trips; N362m for meals and refreshment and N834m for
fuelling generators in the Presidency and the MDAs.
Condemning the allocations, the ACF said Nigerians must insist on service delivery.
It cautioned the government against
frivolous expenses in 2014, saying the nation’s education and health
sectors as well as the labour market, needed urgent intervention.
The forum’s Publicity Secretary, Mr.
Anthony Sani, in an SMS to one of our correspondents said,
“Nigerians need to insist on how much the implementation of the budget
will affect specific socio-economic indices like poverty rate, infant
and maternal mortality, life expectancy, enrolment in schools, literacy
rate, unemployment, or education which have misery indices.”
To the NEF, the 2014 budget tells a sad story about the situation Nigeria has found itself today.
In a telephone interview with one of
our correspondents, its spokesman, Prof. Ango Abdullahi, said it was
sad that those in government were more concerned about their personal
comfort than they were about the suffering of ordinary Nigerians.
According to him, every aspect of the budget shows how inconsiderate government could be.
He said a close look at the budget
revealed that those in government had no regards for improving the
living conditions of Nigerians. This, he said, was exemplified by their
resolve to spend public funds on frivolities.
Abdullahi said, “If you take the N2bn
that is supposed to be the empowerment initiative for the entire
North-East zone where this insurgency is greatest, it is about the same
amount of money that is being wasted on an aircraft.
“And the aircraft is just part of the
overall cost of the official travelling of the Executive branch of
government which amounts to about N7bn.
“Yet, we have a situation where 70 per
cent of the country does not enjoy more than 10hours of electricity
supply and virtually 70 per cent of the country does not see clean,
safe drinking water from their taps.
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