Atiku Advises FG on Reducing Cost of Governance

Former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar has advised Nigerian leaders to abandon  ostentatious living and adjust to the reality that comes with living in a pandemic.

In a statement on Thursday, Atiku said the reduction of the 2020 budget by 0.6 per cent  is nothing but “window dressing”.

“It is to my consternation that despite the crash in the price of oil, and the inability of Nigeria to expand our revenue base through the non-oil sector, the FG of Nigeria has only seen fit to slash our budget by a mere 0.6 per cent. This represents a reduction of only N71 billion,” he said.

Atiku, who was the presidential candidate for the Peoples Democratic Party in the 2019 election, said.

“Putting politics aside, this is grossly insufficient and betrays the fact we have lost touch with the current realities in the global political economy.”

The former Vice President who said crude production and revenue projections have been badly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, noted the 2020 budget should have been slashed by at least 25 per cent.

“How can anyone justify a reduction in expenditure of just 0.6 per cent ? We cannot be the only nation bucking the trend?

“Saudi Arabia, a nation with a much stronger production capacity than ours and with a larger global market share, as well as a foreign reserve that is 12 times ours, has slashed her budget by almost 30 per cent. Ditto for other oil economies.

“Any budget slash that is less than 25 per vent will not be in the interest of Nigeria.”

Listing items that should be expunged from the budget, Atiku said the N27 billion budget for the renovation of the national assembly should be scrapped alongside the monies budgeted for purchasing cars for the president and other political officeholders.

“The billions budgeted for the travels and feeding of the president and vice president has to be reduced. Sell eight or nine of the jets in the presidential air fleet,” he advised.

“Leave the salaries of civil servants alone, but reduce the salaries of political appointees.”