…It’s Highlighted By More Debt, Borrowing,
The Coalition of United Political Parties (CUPP) has slammed President Muhammadu Buhari’s 2022 budget, which was submitted to the National Assembly on Thursday.
The President presented the National Assembly with a budget of N16.39 trillion on Thursday.
The CUPP’s spokesman, Ikenga Imo Ugochinyere, said in a statement made available to newsmen in Abuja stated that the budget is characterized by increased debt and borrowing, as well as vague and elephant projects to fund the 2023 election campaigns.
The CUPP expressed surprise, saying that the budget’s main highlight is that the government has tactfully admitted that it is overwhelmed by its failings and has no remedy in hand, and that the budget is just clothed with fresh loans and borrowings.
The statement read in parts; “It does not inspire any hope in Nigerians rather it sinks the country further into economic woes.
“Recurrent expenditures and capital expenses like purchase of cars, computers and accessories, and other unnecessary and white elephant projects are all the budget contains because the ruling party will use the budget to fund their 2023 election campaigns.
“A N16.39 Trillion budget contains Debt service of N3.61 Trillion, non-debt recurrent costs of N6.83 Trillion while there is only capital expenditure of N5.35 Trillion. New borrowings in the budget is totaling N5.01 Trillion with an extra N1.16 Trillion drawdowns on loans secured for specific projects. This is the highlight of the uninspiring speech of the President as it cannot add any productive value to the economy.
“Furthermore, a close look at the speech will show Nigerians that President Buhari has been perpetually funding the same set of projects without ever completing them. After borrowing over N33 Trillion, President Buhari is still declaring to Nigerians that he is borrowing to fund Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, Abuja-Kano Expressway, East-West Road, 2nd Niger Bridge etc.
“Nigerians should please ask President Buhari; when will these projects which have been in the budgets since 2016 ever be completed?
“President was severally thanking the lawmakers for speedy approvals, but Nigerians will notice that there was never any appreciation for critical analysis by the National Assembly.
“They quickly approved the Medium Term Expenditure Framework, they quickly approved the 2021 supplementary budget, they quickly approved loans and all borrowings and also will quickly approve this budget. All these were without critical analysis on the impact of their approvals on the people they represent”, the statement further stated.
The CUPP, therefore , called on Nigerians to bear yet again another year of suffering but have hope that when the opposition takes over, Nigeria will get back on its feet.
