Peter Obi Shreds Tinubu’s Supplementary Budget, Says Government Is Uncaring

The Labour Party’s presidential candidate for 2023, Peter Obi, has slammed the N2.1trn supplementary budget signed into law by Bola Tinubu’s administration, claiming that the budget demonstrates that the government is completely uncaring and insensitive to the suffering of the majority of Nigerians, as well as indifferent to the mood of the nation.

In his posts on his X platform with the title “Observations on the Supplementary Budget,” the former Anambra State Governor noted that items concerning urgent social welfare were not included in the government’s supplementary budget passed into law; instead, the items made to dominate public discourse on the budget include a mysterious presidential yacht, presidential jets, the furnishing of already lavishly furnished presidential quarters and offices, fleets of luxuries.

“A supplementary budget is one created to address very essential national welfare requirements of the people that were not initially addressed in the main budget or do not have appropriate money. Although some items in the existing budget may not have taken into account the needs of a new administration, a supplementary budget this late in the fiscal year is intended to reflect largely important items of national welfare.

“Unfortunately, the most pressing national needs and emergencies were not addressed in the government’s recently announced supplementary budget.” The United Nations and World Food Programme, for example, have lately warned that up to 6.5 million Nigerians will go hungry next year. This figure is mostly drawn from Sokoto, Adamawa, Borno, Yobe, and Zamfara states. A compassionate government can request supplemental budget provisions to cushion people in jeopardy to plan for the mitigation of such impending disasters.

“No item of urgent social welfare has yet featured in the supplementary budget being orchestrated by this government. Instead, the items being made to dominate public discourse on the budget include a mysterious Presidential Yacht, Presidential Jets, the furnishing of already lavishly furnished presidential quarters and offices, fleets of luxury SUVs, etc. This portrays a Government that is uncaring and insensitive to the suffering of the majority, and indifferent to the mood of the nation.

“The government’s overall attitude does not indicate that it is aware that the country is in a huge crisis, nor is the government in tune with the plight of the generality of our people. Even worse is the fact that most of the funding for these profligate expenditures will be largely borrowed. The least that Nigerians expect from the government at this difficult moment is empathy and realism, not a lavish indulgence,” he emphasised.