Obi is hitting President Bola Tinubu for allegedly neglecting human capital development in his N28.7 trillion budget. He is lashing at Abuja for voting N6.00 billion for legislators’ car park, an allocation which is higher than the N5 billion for the entire Nigeria students loan.
Obi’s attack on Tinubu’s budget is coming as the Chief Whip of the Senate, Mohammed Ali Ndume, who is representing Borno South, is counselling Tinubu to abort the emerging cabals in his presidency.
Ndume stated this in an interview with The Tribune, a newspaper that was founded by the late legendary Chief Obafemi Awolowo.
While he lauded Tinubu for suspending the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, Betta Edu, for proper investigation of financial sleaze in her ministry, the senator pointed out that the axed minister did not act alone but with connivance with certain individuals who have since formed a cartel in the Tinubu Presidency.
Ndume warned that, if not curbed, the looming political cabal could destabilize the administration of President Tinubu, adding that the removal of the minister will send a strong signal to other ministers in Tinubu’s cabinet that their principal would not tolerate corruption.
He noted that the move will bring back confidence in his government, and Nigerians will begin to take his administration seriously. “What President Tinubu has done is very timely. The suspension of the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs is a welcome development. It will allow the relevant agencies to conduct a proper investigation.
“Some people in the same position Tinubu is in would not have acted. But as the leader in charge, he acted swiftly, and the minister has been suspended. We should commend the president. This is something Nigerians should commend.
“But the president should not stop there. There is an emerging political cartel within the corridors of power. The president must not act swiftly and dismantle the cartel.
“If they’re not stopped, they’ll be stronger and worse than the cabal. The president must not allow that to happen. I don’t think what the minister did was an isolated case. I don’t think she acted alone”, Ndume says.
However, Obi is lampooning the inhumane of a budget that has N6.00 billion to construct a car park, a billion naira higher than the N5.00 billion loan budgeted for the entire Nigerian students in tertiary institutions.
Obi notes that this notwithstanding that the legislators had recently used 12 times the number of student loans to buy their cars. Writing in his X handle he said, “in this country, the inadequate attention being given to human capital development is at the root of most investment challenges in our clime.
“This malaise has become a recurring decimal in our political life due to poor governance and persistent leadership failure in the country. This has become a critical thing that is affecting the overall development, especially its HDI rating. Nigeria currently ranks 163 out of 191 countries measured and remained within the low category when our contemporaries have all moved on to medium and high categories.
“It is therefore shocking that our budget was signed and released to the world without prioritizing the critical areas of investment for the people. A sum of N5 billion was budgeted for student loans, while a larger sum of N6 billion was budgeted to build a car park for the legislators, who recently used 12 times the amount of student loans to buy their cars. Now we are using an amount more than was budgeted for student loans, to provide them with car parks.
“Nigeria remains a country without a national library. The library was awarded by Late General Abacha in 1995, and despite the billions already spent on it, it remains uncompleted today, and Nigeria’s library is operating from a rented apartment. Yet, the National Assembly budgeted N3 billion for its library.
“I consistently maintain that unless we cut the cost of governance and strictly prioritise our expenditure on areas of growth and development, we will not achieve any tangible and lasting development.”
Obi has also kicked against what he described as Tinubu administration’s disturbing pattern of huge borrowing and profligate spending on non-essential procurements, warning that such pattern would soon wreck the economy.
He is equally condemning Abuja’s securitisation of Ways and Means borrowing from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) which he said is against the law and the CBN act which stipulates the limit of government’s borrowing from the CBN not to exceed 5 per cent of the previous year’s revenue.
Obi in a statement said the current trend of Abuja’s lavish spending backed only by equally lavish borrowing is unsustainable and would wreck the economy in due course.
“What is emerging is a disturbing pattern of huge borrowing and profligate spending on nonessential procurements which are being termed ‘capital’ expenditure and are being funded with an accumulation of debts. For instance, a good number of these so-called ‘capital’ expenditure items as contained in the 2024 budget are more procurement and luxury projects.
“This trend of lavish spending backed only by equally lavish borrowing is unsustainable and would wreck the economy in due course. It needs to be halted.
“Unless this trend is halted, the nation runs the greater risk of running into more turbulent economic waters in the near future. This is to add my concerned voice to those of many other troubled Nigerians.
“This is the time when we need to go beyond politics and partisan grandstanding to address the fundamental issues of rational economic management. I am afraid that the current administration is not paying sufficient attention to issues of rational economic management. Instead, an unsustainable level of debt is being piled upon the economy thereby further burdening our already distressed populace who are bearing the burden of harsh economic policies not backed by compassionate cushioning policies”, he said.
Tracing the problem from the previous administration, Obi said: “Barely 26 days to the end of its eight-year tenure, the Buhari administration got the Senate to approve a N22.7 trillion Ways and Means borrowing from the CBN. In seven years, CBN lending to the Buhari government had climbed 2700 per cent in flagrant violation of the CBN Act.
“Indifferent to the illegality of the excessive ways and means borrowing, the National Assembly still approved the new Tinubu administration’s request for an N7.3 trillion securitization of the existing ways and means facility just before considering the 2024 budget proposals. On December 30, 2023, the last working day of the year 2023, shockingly the President requested the National Assembly to approve the securitization of N7.3 trillion being the outstanding debt owed to the CBN, by the Federal Government.
“Almost at the same time as the illegal securitization was approved by parliament, the president also sought and secured National Assembly approval to borrow another $7.8 bn and €100m. No questions asked. No explanations were sought as to the precise purpose of these borrowings all within the seven-month tenure of this government. ‘
“Ordinarily, minimum public accountability should require that the president and his administration offer more specific explanations about the purpose of these borrowings. But so far, all we have been told is that these borrowings are meant to fund ‘capital’ expenditure.
”Specifically, the continuous securitization of Ways and Means borrowing from the CBN is against the law and against the CBN act which stipulates the limit of the Federal Government’s borrowing from the CBN not to exceed 5 per cent of the previous year’s revenue. ”The law also requires the liquidation of the outstanding borrowing before any new advancement can be made.
“More importantly, the CBN Act expressly states that all borrowings under the Ways and Means cannot be converted to debt or securitized if the CBN is the underwriter.
“It needs to be pointed out that the idea of securitization of illegal borrowings from the CBN and transferring the same into our debt stock portends danger to the future of our economy. It increases the debt burden of the nation. It is even more worrisome because these accumulations of debts are not being transparently and productively utilized or accounted for.
“While this new debt of N7.3 trillion has been hurriedly approved without scrutiny by the National Assembly, the immediate public accountability question is: can the Federal Government, which holds the trust of the people, tell us what they used N7.3 trillion to do?
“We have always been told that all borrowings are for ‘capital’ projects, can we know the capital or productive projects this huge borrowing is being applied to?“
