The Action Congress of Nigeria has raised the alarm over the alleged reckless extravagance of the Jonathan administration, saying it could plunge the country into bankruptcy if left unchecked.
In a statement issued in Ilorin on Tuesday by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party described as totally unacceptable and utterly shameful that a government that has not made a positive impact on Nigerians will engage in such wastage.
It said the government has now beaten its own record for profligacy by its decision to build a 2.2 billion Naira Banquet Hall in the Aso Rock Presidential Villa, which the man who announced the white elephant project, FCT Minister Bala Mohammed, justified by saying “other smaller countries have better Banquet Halls near their Presidential residences.”
The party said, “It is interesting that a minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria is comparing the country with ‘smaller countries’ when it comes to justifying a project that will only benefit a few elite. Does the minister know that the citizens of the so-called smaller countries enjoy uninterrupted electricity supply? Does he know that the citizens of those countries don’t have to queue up endlessly for petrol and kerosene; that they don’t have to depend on Okada for transportation; and that they have no road as terrible as Lagos-Ibadan expressway?
“In any case, nothing can justify the decision to spend such a huge amount of money on a Banquet Hall in a country where many go to bed hungry most nights, where youth unemployment is at a high 46.5% and where projects that could make Nigeria to achieve the MDGs, less than three years to the target date, are almost non-existent.”
The party also condemned the reported decision by the Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Dieziani Alison-Madueke, to spend N6.5 billion for “sensitisation” on the Petroleum Industry Bill; President Goodluck Jonathan’s propensity to travel to international meetings with a bloated entourage and the continuous allocation of huge funds to purchase aircraft for the presidential fleet, saying they all fit into the mindless profligacy of the Jonathan Administration.
“One would have expected that a government headed by a man who himself has publicly acknowledged his humble beginnings will be less profligate and more inclined to allocate funds to developmental projects that will uplift the standard of living of his compatriots, including ensuring better security for them. Sadly, what we are witnessing under the discombobulated Jonathan Administration is the exact opposite,” it said.
ACN advised the administration to retrace it steps by spending the nation’s scarce resources only on projects that can benefit the masses, rather than a few elite, and urged all Nigerians to join in calling the government to order before it runs the country aground.
