Buhari’s budget a big fraud’ – PDP

The Peoples Democratic Party has described the
N6.8 trillion 2016 federal budget presented by
President Muhammadu Buhari on Tuesday as a
big fraud and executive conspiracy tailored
towards mortgaging the future of the nation.
The party queried Mr. Buhari’s decision to borrow
N2 trillion, the biggest in the history of the nation
as the “height of recklessness and deceit from a
government that trends on propaganda”.
The PDP in a statement by its National Publicity
Secretary, Olisa Metuh, on Tuesday berated the
Federal Government for trying to use their
“bogus” welfare programme and “phantom”
capital projects as cover and conduit to syphon
the funds to satisfy partisan interests,
particularly to settle huge campaign debts.
“It is obvious that this budget is an extension of
the campaign promises of the APC government,
presented as a manifesto filled with bogus
promises which implementation will be
inconclusive, thereby allowing the APC to once
again deny their promises.
“There has never been any known economy in
the world where government deliberately
mortgage the future of its nation by borrowing
excessively to finance partisan interests while
hiding under bogus welfare programmes. This is
moreso important as the APC in reeling out their
bogus campaign promises never informed
Nigerians that they would mortgage their future
through excessive borrowing.
“We have it on good authority that this is the
first in the series of APC borrowings which would
leave the future generation of Nigerians under
the burden of huge debts after four years,” PDP
said.
The PDP also said the budget clearly showed
that after seven months in power, Mr. Buhari and
his party, the All Progressives Congress were yet
to differentiate between governance and
campaign propaganda.
“By all standards, the 2016 budget, the first
major economic policy outing of this government,
is completely unrealistic and duplicitously
embellished with impractical predications, a
development that confirms fears by economy
watchers and investors that this administration is
obviously ill-equipped for governance.
“We are indeed shocked that President Buhari
and his minister of information have come up
with two different reasons for the current fuel
crisis in the country. While we appreciate the
President’s apology, we think it is high time he
called this minister to order as his excessive
propaganda and blame game are ridiculing this
administration and the image of the nation.
“Furthermore, it is instructive to note the official
endorsement of Mr. President to the devaluation
of the naira as against his campaign promise of
firming up the value of our currency even to the
much vaunted one naira to one dollar.
‘Does it mean that Mr. President lied his way to
power, or that he did not understand the
complexities of governance when he was making
his false promises to Nigerians?
“In future, there is need to regulate campaign
promises so that we will not end up with a
government that promises to climb Mount
Everest with bare hands and end up mortgaging
our future with orchestrated borrowings.
“Finally, we want to request Mr. President to
once again to involve experienced and well-
tested hands in the management of the economy
and budgeting processes. This economy is not
for Mr. President, neither is it for the APC. The
progress of the economy is for all Nigerians and
as such, due care should taken to save ourselves
from unrealistic and deceptive programmes,” the
party said.