HURIWA wants Buhari, Osinbajo’s food, travels budget slashed to support farmers, flood victims

Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) has told President Muhammadu Buhari to slash the N11.92 billion captured in the N20.51 trillion 2023 budget proposal for food and travels for him and his vice, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, to N1 billion and allot the N10.92 billion balance to farmers and victims of flooding to grow the nation’s agriculture sector.

Describing the vote as bogus and over-inflated, the group’s National Coordinator, Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko, in a statement, added that the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Sadiya Umar Farouq, must be made to convincingly account before the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on how billions meant for the poor were spent.

According to the Federal Government, about $100 million have been spent on nourishing 10 million pupils under the National School Feeding Programme.

In contrast, every minute, more than six Nigerians enter the extreme poverty bracket, as the number of poor persons in the country races towards the 95.1 million projected this year by the World Bank.

Also, Nigeria was ranked 103 out of 121 countries in the 2022 Global Hunger Index (GHI), a position that signified the nation has a serious level of hunger.

The global lender, in its latest 2022 Poverty and Prosperity Report, said Nigeria contributed three million people to the world’s extreme penury, while the country is “home to a large share of the global extreme poor.”

Onwubiko noted: “It is unfortunate and detestable that elected leaders in Nigeria should exhibit this level of gluttony and avaricious at a time when many more Nigerians are starving to death.

“HURIWA tasks the President to drastically cut down on this bogus budget for foods and travels to just N1 billion so the remaining funds can go into promoting local agricultural productivity coupled with robust a security architecture.”