Opposition Reps too pick holes in proposal
PAN-YORUBA socio-cultural group, Afenifere rose from a meeting yesterday in Akure , Ondo State with a communique faulting the 2016 budget and urged President Muhammadu Buhari to steer the nation towards restructuring.

This was disclosed by the Publicity Secretary of the group, Yinka Odumakin who read the communique to newsmen at the residence of Afenifere leader, Pa. Reuben Fasoranti after deliberations on the state of the nation.

In another development, members of the House of Representatives, mostly of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) at the resumption of plenary yesterday picked holes in certain aspects of the 2016 Appropriation Bill as the House ended debate on its general principles, as well as approved its second reading on the floor.

The socio-cultural group expressed displeasure over the 2016 budget presented to the National Assembly, saying: “There are scandalous expenditures in that budget which cannot be justified, which are not rational and which nobody should think is what we need at this moment.”

His words: “For instance we are in court prosecuting a former National Security Adviser (NSA) that he was alleged to have disbursed so much money. Now, in this current budget, after we have given money to all security agencies, we still voted N50billion to the office of NSA, 3.9 billion to buy cars for the Presidency, N800 million for a gymnasium and voted about N300 million to lay cables to drivers rooms .”

The group reiterated that while Afenifere supports the review of anti-corruption war going on in the country it cautioned that “it should not be selective, sectional and should be all embracing and encompassing and should be fought within the confines of rules of law.”

Odumakin noted that in the bid to salvage the present situation, the Federal Government has embarked on certain measures that bear negatively on the economy, leading to increase in kerosene price which has in turn increased the hardship of the poor people.
“We have noticed the imposition of N50 stamp duty on every bank deposit, we consider this as an anomaly that the Central Bank should be encouraging banking sector in the country is trying to discourage the banking sector.

“We have also noticed the excessive borrowing, which is going to characterize the 2016 Budget, which is unhealthy, which will further tighten the debt noose on the country.”

Afenifere tasked President Buhari to consider the restructuring of the country in line with the recommendation of the last National Conference in Abuja.

“The Federal Government should immediately consider the restructuring of this country along the lines of recommendation of 2014 National Conference.

“Since government is a continuum, the present government should immediately implement it so that we can create the new corridor of prosperity that will take Nigeria out of the current crisis we are facing,” he said.

During the resumed debate on the N6.08 trillion budget yesterday, Minority Leader of the House, Leo Ogor said the budget is what can best be described as incomplete, as estimates for some Ministries Departments and Agencies (MDAs) were conspicuously missing from the document.

He also queried inconsistencies between the figure of N6.08 trillion proposed by President Muhammadu Buhari, and the document being considered by the House, that the later if added up amounts to N6.33 trillion.

In his submission, Chairman of the House Committee on Air Force, Samson Okwu said the drop in the price of crude oil from the benchmarked $38 dollar per barrel to $28 would naturally affect government’s revenue projections in the budget, even as he called for diversification of the economy.