Atiku Abubakar, presidential
candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), says the 2019 budget presented
to the national assembly by President Muhammadu Buhari is “fundamentally
flawed”.
Atiku said the N8.83 trillion
budget fails to address current realities, noting that it is built on a “very
shaky foundation”.
In an article written about the
budget, the presidential candidate alleged that “several inaccurate claims
litter the budget document”.
He wrote: “The proposed budget as
presented is fundamentally flawed. It deliberately ignores and fails to address
current realities and pretends, as Mr. President asserts, ‘we are on the right
direction’.
“On the contrary, the 2019 budget
is built on very shaky foundation and makes very generous, often wild and
untenable assumptions which pose significant risks to its implementation. It
will be a disservice to the country if we ignore these fundamental flaws.
“Several inaccurate claims litter
the budget document – all, I think, in an attempt for Mr. President to
whitewash the regime and hide their monumental failure to improve, even
minimally, the welfare and living standards of much of the population. I see
the rhetoric of ‘inclusive, diversified and sustainable growth’ as no more than
an amplification of the APC-led government’s renewed propaganda to hoodwink the
citizens into believing that there is ‘light at the end of the tunnel’.
“Few of these claims by Mr.
President are that ‘we have recorded several successes in economic management’,
that ‘the economy has recovered from recession’, that ‘foreign capital inflows
including direct and portfolio investments (have) responded to improved economic
management and that ‘we have had a sustained accretion to foreign exchange
reserves’ etc.”
The former vice-president said
the 2019 proposed budget “will not pull Nigeria from the abyss” but may rather
“accentuate the misery and hopelessness the Nigerian people have lived with
since 2015”.
Atiku said there must be an
alternative to the budget, adding that Nigeria “needs a government which
understands how to run the economy”.
He said: “For the avoidance of
doubt, an Atiku Presidency, come 2019, will present to Nigerians a people’s
budget that will prioritize and focus on the twin challenges of unemployment
and poverty.”
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