Politics

2019: Atiku blasts Buhari: Stop wasteful sharing of funds like Father Christmas

Published

6 years ago

November 6, 2018

Olu Emmanuel

Spread The News

Stop wasteful sharing of funds like Father Christmas

The presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, has blasted President Muhammadu Buhari, presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), to stop wastage donation of Nigeria’s to other countries “like Father Christmas” and manage the country’s resources with prudence. Atiku chided Buhari for not utilizing the resources of the country to improve the lives of Nigerians and end the hardship the APC government infested on the people.

Atiku Abubakar condemned the report that the Buhari-led federal government approved a donation of $500,000 to the Republic of Guinea Bissau for the country’s November 18 legislative election.

National Daily learnt that the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama, receiving Jose Filho, Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General to Guinea Bissau in Abuja on Tuesday, disclosed the financial bonanza the federal government approved for Guinea Bissau.

National Daily further gathered that Onyeama acknowledged that the federal government also approved electoral kits and vehicles to enhance the successful conduct of the country’s election, remarking the gesture was to help Guinea Bissau get out of what has been a very difficult situation in the past few years.

Atiku, in a statement on Sunday, advocated that Nigeria’s resources should be used for the country and its people, decrying that such wastage should not be encouraged at time people are hungry and facing all manners of hardship.

The PDP presidential candidate chided the Buhari administration of engaging in persistent “reckless wastefulness” of Nigeria’s resources. He wondered that a country identified as the world headquarters of extreme poverty would indulge in donation of her resources to others instead of solving its own pressing problems.

Atiku had in the statement by his campaign Organization, declared: “Recently, we had cause to counsel the Buhari administration to be more prudent with national resources after the government declared its intention to sell national assets built by previous administrations to fund their business as usual 2019 budget.

“Apparently, rather than give heed to our pro bono patriotic advise, the Buhari administration is persisting in the financial profligacy that has seen them destroy a once thriving economy.

“In the latest instance, the Buhari government has announced that it is making a $500,000 donation to Guinea Bissau, along with other material donations.

“Our response is to ask why a nation that has been officially named as the world headquarters for extreme poverty, will donate her resources to others instead of using them to solve pressing domestic problems?

“This is the same government that is so cash strapped that it has so far borrowed ₦13 trillion in three years putting our economy in even greater peril.

“How prudent is it to go about taking loans from whomsoever cares to lend you money and then turn around to give out those same monies even when your own people are suffering the worst forms of poverty they have ever endured?

“We call on the Buhari administration to cut their coat according to their cloth. He should stop donating like Father Christmas. He should attend to the needs of Nigerians.”