NEWS
Obi Considers Tinubu’s 2024 Fiscal Budget ‘Crazy’
. . . Laments Frivolous Allocation Of Over N20bn For VP’s House
Presidential Candidate of the Labour Party in the 2023 elections, Peter Obi has put the proposed 2024 budget of the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu administration under the microscope, lamenting the crazy wastefulness enshrined therein.
Obi claimed that he was still studying the document, which is being hurriedly passed by the National Assembly, took to his verified X handle to express grave concerns that priorities were being misplaced.
He expressed firm conviction that something was fundamentally wrong with the way Nigeria was being led at the moment, drawing examples from the provision for housing the Vice President, Kashim Shettima Mustapha.
According to Obi, “I am compelled to ask: what is exactly wrong with us as a country?”
It beat Obi’s imagination why budgetary allocation for housing Mustapha would cover the cost of annual salaries for 3,000 professors, when Nigeria was in dire need of human capital development, healthcare, while grappling with unemployment and underemployment challenges.
He pointed out that Nigeria, “budgeted the sum of N20.5 billion for the housing of the Vice President,” while maintaining the status of “the world’s poverty capital”, yet “more people are falling into poverty”, at such speed that several “Nigerians not knowing where their next meal will come from”.
Obi pointed to the state of health facilities in Nigeria and level of unemployment and wondered what such a colossal amount could do in such critical areas.
He lamented “that 99.9% of Nigerians can only dream of living in the current residence of the Vice President,” while some even the in employment of the Federal Government are not being paid.
In his analyses, Obi noted that “the salary of a professor in a Nigerian university is about N400,000, which without removing tax is about N5 million a year.
“What we have budgeted for the housing of the Vice President who is already luxuriously housed is, therefore, the annual salary of about 3000 professors!”
He made examples of quality decisions made by past leaders like late Gen Murtala Mohammed, who turned down land allocated for his presidential mansion and ordered that it should be developed into the popular 1004 flats in the Victoria Island area of Lagos.
“We have had leaders that were exemplary in the past.
“Most Nigerians may not know that the popular 1004 flats in Lagos, was a land allocated for the building of a Presidential Mansion for the then Head of State, General Murtala Mohammed.
“He sternly turned down the offer and instructed that the land should be used to build blocks of flats for civil servants.
Below is the full text of what Obi wrote on X in a series of tweets.
Obi wrote, “Even as I am still studying the 2024 fiscal budget as presented to the National Assembly last week, I cannot wait as I am compelled to ask: what is exactly wrong with us as a country?
“I ask this question because it is hard for me to understand some of the recent happenings in our nation, in these critical times. The recent news about a budget provision of N15 billion for the construction of a new residence for the Vice President is both shocking and disheartening, considering the many important challenges facing our nation.
“Just recently in the Supplementary Budget, the sum of N2.5 billion was included for the renovation of the Vice President’s residence in Abuja, which means that he already has a residence.
“Again, during the budget presentation, I heard the sum of N3 billion was allocated for the renovation of the Vice President’s residence in Lagos.
“If we total all these sums, we would have budgeted the sum of N20.5 billion for the housing of the Vice President at this critical time when we are not just the world’s poverty capital, but more people are falling into poverty, with so many Nigerians not knowing where their next meal will come from.
“Our health facilities have collapsed, and unemployment is skyrocketing.
“I am convinced that 99.9% of Nigerians can only dream of living in the current residence of the Vice President. Several people employed in the universities are not being paid.
“Just to give an example, the salary of a professor in a Nigerian university is about N400,000, which without removing tax is about N5 million a year.
“What we have budgeted for the housing of the Vice President who is already luxuriously housed is, therefore, the annual salary of about 3000 professors! This is the finance needed to develop the much-needed human capital.
“The budget of N5 billion for student loans, which is yet to be disbursed is only a tiny percentage of the cost of the Vice President’s new home.
“We are projecting to use four times the amount for educating ALL Nigerian indigent students to house the Vice President, and we are being told there is nothing wrong with us.
“I am sure the major teaching hospitals in Nsukka, Lagos, Ibadan, and Zaria did not receive this much capital vote in the budget this year.
“We have had leaders that were exemplary in the past.
“Most Nigerians may not know that the popular 1004 flats in Lagos, was a land allocated for the building of a Presidential Mansion for the then Head of State, General Murtala Mohammed.
“He sternly turned down the offer and instructed that the land should be used to build blocks of flats for civil servants.
“That is the kind of sacrificial leadership worth emulating. Our leaders must therefore stop the recklessness and insensitivity to the plight of the masses.
“We need leaders who show compassion and are willing to sacrifice for common progress and development. Such compassionate and frugal leaders are critical in our journey to the New Nigeria. –PO”
The Director General, Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN), Mr. Charles Odii, the Executive Vice Chairman/CEO, Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Dr. Aminu Maida, other regulators, experts, stakeholders from the financial services and ICT sectors, small business owners among others have confirmed their attendance at the SUPERNEWS Nigeria SMEs Forum 2024 scheduled for Thursday, June 13th 2024 at Radisson Hotel, GRA Ikeja, Lagos.
The conference with the theme, ‘Bringing SMEs into the Financial Services Network via Fintech’ would be declared open by the SMEDAN DG, Mr. Charles Odii, while the EVC of NCC will chair the event.
A renowned economist and financial expert, Dr. Biodun Adedipe, the MD/CEO Biodun Adedipe & Associate Ltd., will deliver the keynote speech at the conference, which would dig into issues faced by SMEs in running their day-to-day businesses in Nigeria.
The conference will also feature a panel session which would be handled by erudite scholars, including the Chairman, Nigerian Association of Small and Medium Enterprises (NASME), Yeye Modupe Dada; Managing Director/CEO, Sunu Assurances Plc, Mr. Sam Ogbodu, Managing Director/CEO of APT Securities and Funds Limited, Mr. Kasimu Garba Kurfi and Head, Financial Institutions Ratings at Agusto & Co., Mr. Ayokunle Olubunmi.
The Special Guests of Honour for the conference include the Director General of SMEDAN, Mr. Charles Odii; Acting Director General, Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Dr. Emomotimi Agama and the Commissioner for Insurance/CEO, National Insurance Commission (NAICOM), Mr. Olusegun Ayo Omosehin.
The Publisher of SUPERNEWS Nigeria, Ngozi Onyeakusi in a statement in Lagos said the choice of the theme of the Conference was borne out of the quest to improve the business climate for SMEs in Nigeria by leveraging on technology in terms of accessing financial services.
She said it’s unfortunate that SMEs that form the bedrock of every economy are plagued by a lot of challenges, especially inadequate access to finance. Indeed, reports have shown that the challenge of SMEs in accessing funds could be traced to inadequate access to financial institutions and education, skills, experience of owners/managers, high interest rates, gender discrimination, among others.
It therefore becomes imperative to leverage on technology to ensure their sustainability, productivity and profitability.
The conference, she said, will, among others, examine the key challenges faced by SMEs in Nigeria and provide practical solutions to help overcome them.
It will equally explore the benefits of fintech for small businesses, including how it can help them overcome financial challenges and drive growth through technology-driven solutions.
She equally emphasised that the confab is a learning opportunity designed to enhance awareness, deepen understanding of the participants on how SMEs can grow and sustain their businesses by embracing various financial services options including banking, capital market, pension and insurance.
The Osun State Government has urged President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the Inspector General of Police and other stakeholders in Nigeria to urgently summon a former PDP stalwart in Osun State, Alhaji Shuaibu Oyedokun for questioning over his recent incendiary comments on the person and personality of the Governor of Osun State, Senator Dr Ademola Jackson Nurudeen Adeleke and the entire Adeleke family of Ede, Osun State.
This was contained in a statement issued in Osogbo, the Osun State capital, by the Commissioner for Information and Public Enlightenment, Oluomo Kolapo Alimi.
According to the statement, the Government viewed with gross concern and outright dismay, the careless and unguarded utterances made by Alh. Shuaib Oyedokun wherein he advised Gov Adeleke not to, by any means, contest for a second term governorship in Osun State, if he doesn’t want an act of murder to be carried out and be hanged on the Governor and the highly respected Adeleke family of Ede where the Governor hails from.
The statement noted that during a live Yoruba radio programme on Rave F.M, Osogbo, tagged *Oro Oselu*, on Monday, the 20th of May, 2024, Alhaji.Oyedokun threw cautions to the wind in many of his politically uncultured and morally unguarded remarks while on the programme.
The OSG viewed such comments as not only inciting but the highest form of desperation from Alh Oyedokun and the entire Osun APC to which he defected to recently.
Against the backdrop of further interpreting his utterances throughout the duration of the Yoruba programme as a dangerous security development in Osun State, for which Alimi in the statement called for an immediate summon and eventual questioning of Oyedokun, by the law enforcement agencies to explain why the right of Gov Adeleke to contest for a second term should warrant shedding of innocent blood and hanging it on the neck of the governor and his family.
The security agencies need to unravel what plots or scheming bordering on criminality Pa Oyedokun is privy to or hatching alone or in partnership with his new party. This is necessary to forestall maturing of a hideous agenda capable of plunging Osun into crisis ahead of 2026 polls, the statement further reiterated.
The statement reads in part as follows: “As a Government, we view Alhaji Shuaib Oyedokun’s utterances throughout the duration of the
*Oro Oselu* radio programme of Monday, 20th of May,2024 as totally incongruous, callous, dirty, unwarranted and nauseating to say the least.
“Alhaji Shuaib Oyedokun’s comments,were not just within the boundaries of exercising his fundamental human rights of freedom of speech, they are at best morally awkward, debasing and a threat cum invitation for mayhem.
“Conclusively, as a Government, we are of the view that,whatever happens, bordering on the security of lives and property of the people of Osun State, before, during and after the coming Governorship election or any other election in our dear state, the likes of Oyedokun and APC members should be held accountable.”
Retired police officers under the contributory pension scheme have taken to the streets of Abuja to protest several months of unpaid pensions.
Coming from various state chapters, they voiced their frustration over the hardships they face due to PENCOM’s failure to pay their entitlements.
The retirees are calling on the Federal Government to exempt them from the contributory pension scheme.
In a video shared on social media platform X on Tuesday, the retirees were seen holding placards and chanting, “All we are saying, give us our right.”
See video below:
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