Lawmakers has revealed why President Muhammadu Buhari was openly jeered and booed during the presentation of the 2019 budget at the National Assembly.
When President Buhari proposed an N8.83 trillion 2019 budget at a joint session of the National Assembly in Abuja on Wednesday, December 19, 2018. Many lawmakers were heard openly booing the president while he delivered his opening statement about the achievements of his administration. Read the report HERE.
During the incident, some pro-Buhari lawmakers in the All Progressives Congress (APC) attempted to drown out the jeers by applauding and hailing the president during the presentation.
According to Premium Times, its been finally revealed why the lawmakers protested during the presentation.
One of the protesting members, Kingsley Chinda (Rivers – PDP), said it was fueled by the current administration’s ‘insincerity’ on budgets. He said:
“The presidency has not been fair to Nigerians when it comes to budget and most often they use that to blame the legislature. One example is, when it comes to capital releases, you will find out that they have performed very poorly.”
He said having performed so poorly, the president still talks about how to turn the economy around when they have not released capital expenditures, what magic are they going to do?
“Today he told Nigerians that they have about N800 billion so far for capital expenditures as against N6.4 trillion, if you calculate that, it will give you about 16 percent.
“What it means is that they have achieved just 16 percent release of capital expenditures.”
“The economy cannot move with that kind of practice.”
He added that during their oversight, they discovered from some government agencies that only eight percent of their 2018 budget was released. He said the president cannot be trusted to improve Nigeria’s economy.
He frowned at what he described as the executive disobedience to the Constitution which placed some agencies under the first line charge.
According to Pulse, a Deputy Minority Leader, Chukwuka Onyema (Anambra – PDP), also addressed the media to disclose that the president was booed because his administration has lacked vision in the management of Nigeria’s economy.
While reading from a prepared speech, he said the current administration has only engaged in ‘lies, blames and propaganda’ while the nation suffers from a lack of quality leadership. He said:
“For a government that came into power promising utopia, consistently dismal implementation of the national budget betrays its half-hearted insensitivity to the plight of the Nigerian people who long for genuine progress and development that will positively impact their lives.
“Yet since 2015, it has been an unfortunate harvest of lies, blames and propaganda while its over hyped campaign promises of security, economic growth and war against corruption have remained a mirage.”
Despite the fact that some of the anti-Buhari lawmakers also displayed some prepared placards in protest against the president, Chinda said that the protest was not planned, it was largely spontaneous. He said:
“The protest was not planned, it was spontaneous. This morning, people just felt there was a need for it.”
He also disclosed that some of the APC lawmakers were in support but could not openly antagonize the president during the presentation.
“It is not just about PDP lawmakers, some of the APC lawmakers felt that because they belonged to the same political party with the president, it will not be tidy for them to come to the open.
“They are actually not happy with what is going on in the system.”
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