A member of the House of
Representatives, Hon Kehinde Agboola has said the planned increase in the
salary of Nigerian workers was a mere deception being contrived by the All
Progressives Congress–led government to delude Nigerians ahead of 2019.
The Vice Chairman, House
Committee on Drugs and Narcotics said President Muhammadu Buhari didn’t capture
the provisions for salary increment in the 2018 budget.
He said “it was a mere deceit to
portray them as being workers’ friendly”.
Agboola added that the approval
sought by President Buhari for the deduction of $1 billion from the Excess
Crude Account (ECA) to fight Boko Haram showed that the president had lied to
the country by his earlier comment that the war against insurgency has been
won.
He also craved the federal
government’s indulgence for the movement of the National Drug Law Enforcement
Agency (NDLEA) from the Ministry of Justice to the presidency, lamenting that
the agency was being grossly underfunded unlike the Department of State
Security (DSS) and the Economic
and Financial Crimes Commission
(EFCC).
Speaking in Odo Oro Ekiti in
Ikole local government area of Ekiti State on Tuesday, Agboola, a member of the
Peoples Democratic Party(PDP), said there was no way the president can effect
salary increase without budgetary provision for it, saying the measure may end
up hitting the rock.
The lawmaker, representing
Ikole/Oye federal constituency , said he has built 10 solar powered boreholes,
build N25 million worth 200 capacity lecture room at Federal University, Oye
Ekiti, erected solar street lights in Ire and Odo Oro and donated sewing
machines, among others to his constituents since assuming office.
On the contentious salary
increase, he said: “what the APC government wanted to do is to fly the kite of
salary increase, so that they can have sufficient grounds to defend increase of
the price of petrol toN200, this is because it was not captured in the 2018
budget”.
Agboola added that it was so
appalling that the president has been lying to Nigerians on his claim that Boko
Haram has been defeated, stressing: “If that was true, why was the president
seeking approval for $1b withdrawal from the ECA to fight insurgents?
“We can infer that this was an
evidence of failure in Boko Haram fight, because they had earlier said they
have won the battle.
“Look at what is happening to our
economy, it has been grounded by fuel scarcity. Though, former President
Olusegun Obasanjo said he didn’t recommend Buhari as president to revamp the
economy but to fight insecurity and corruption.
“If you look at the whole
scenario now, the president seems to be failing even in those areas where
Obasanjo thought he would do well.
“The former Secretary to the
Government of the Federation, Babachir Lawal used N700m to cut grasses and
today he is not being prosecuted.
“A whole House of Assembly in
Ekiti wrote to EFCC about how a serving Minister had mismanaged his state when
he was governor, no action was taken.
“Nigerians should tell us, what
has Dr Goodluck Jonathan’s government did that has not been witnessed under
Buhari?”
“So, I align with Governors
Ayodele Fayose and Nyesom Wike that the deductions from ECA should be deployed
to fight hunger in their own states as well”, he added.
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