Final showdown looms as 'TINUBU' bombs BUHARI, APC-led FG in an EDITORIAL
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NIGERIAN PALACE NEWS NOVEMBER 6, 2016:
The Buhari-led government has come under fire for its display of spectacular opulence in spite of the ongoing recession ravaging the country, especially among the three tiers of government.
In an Editorial published in The Nation newspapers on November 6, 2016, owned by the National Leader Nigeria's governing party, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, it severely criticized the reckless spending of public funds, chastises the Presidency for failure to lead by example which the respective states' governor may have taken a cue from.
The flagrant display of opulence in the face of the agonizing effect of the ongoing hardship on pauperized Nigerians. He specifically took a swipe at the President Buhari for not living up to the change mantra in spite of the ongoing economic recession adding that ''not much has changed in the budgeted overheads of the Presidential Villa compared to the erstwhile regimes''
He criticized Buhari for still maintaining an air fleet large enough to start a national carrier, a lifestyle that does not conform to the government's austere measures and hard times.
His words:
''Is the Presidency living up to the mantra of government’s austere measures and hard times? What, for example, is the president doing with a presidential air fleet that is large enough to start a national carrier? A fleet that requires billions of naira to maintain in a period the country is borrowing to support budget?
''We thought this large fleet, a reminder of our corrupt and wasteful past, would have been disbanded on President Muhammadu Buhari’s first day in office to set the tone for a frugal and commonsensical era. We notice that not much has changed in the budgeted overheads of the Presidential Villa compared to the erstwhile unscrupulous regimes.''
Below is the full Editorial piece headlined ''Opulence even in recession''
''The old saying that “example is better than precept” not only holds true still but couldn’t be more apt in today’s Nigeria. It is a time and season that calls for not just quality leadership but one that leads by personal examples; one that lives a daily life of prudence and frugality.
With the economy badly shrunken and hardship pervasive across the land, it is trite to expect that Nigeria’s leaders at all levels, especially those entrusted with the nation’s treasury, would exhibit utmost sensitivity in their personal lifestyles. As crude oil, the mainstay of Nigeria’s economy has lost its old glory and value, revenues are in short fall.
Nigeria is today forced to return to the road she missed, which is a diversified economy. She must return to a culture of service excellence, production and productivity. She must retool her collective psyche and refocus her energies to the huge, untapped opportunities inherent in her vast arable land, her rich tourism potentials and exciting sports and entertainment industries.
The sheer size of Nigeria’s population would sustain any economy if properly harnessed for the huge marketplace it represents; the brilliant and vibrant human capital and her unexplored intellectual power-house. The avenues to wealth and national growth Nigeria are imbued with are too numerous for her to suffer her present fate.
Now that circumstances have forced the country to return to the paths not taken, people at the helm of affairs at every level must shed their old bad habits in order to lead the change. They must ingrain it in their mentality that the tide has turned for good. No more cheap money to throw around while fiscal and financial discipline must be their watchword now.
Mr. Peter Obi, the two-term former Governor of Anambra State set the nation abuzz during a lecture last October 1when he gave an insight into the mind-boggling wastages that go on in the name of governance in Nigeria, especially at the state level.
He noted that about one-quarter of most state governments’ budgets are deployed to wasteful and frivolous expenditures, he spoke about worthless trips with large retinue of aides; about the office of the First Lady which takes up billions out of state budgets annually; the security votes which are at the discretion of the sitting governors and the heavy consumption of exotic wines and spirits in government houses across the land, among others.
He suggested that if there was more prudence in governance in all ramifications there would always be enough funds to run governments and enough to save as he exemplified during his tenure.
About two years after Mr. Obi left office and two years into an economy shorn of petro-dollars, are these bad habits still in practice at various government houses across the land? Are the so-called first ladies still running expensive offices and living celebrity lifestyles? Are governors still living large and cornering huge chunks of state budgets for their ‘personal security’ and State House comfort?
Is the Presidency living up to the mantra of government’s austere measures and hard times? What, for example, is the president doing with a presidential air fleet that is large enough to start a national carrier? A fleet that requires billions of naira to maintain in a period the country is borrowing to support budget?
We thought this large fleet, a reminder of our corrupt and wasteful past, would have been disbanded on President Muhammadu Buhari’s first day in office to set the tone for a frugal and commonsensical era. We notice that not much has changed in the budgeted overheads of the Presidential Villa compared to the erstwhile unscrupulous regimes.
It is crucially important that the presidency shows the way by being the exemplar of the new ethos of frugality and judicious application of public funds. It is the power of personal example of the president that will lead the campaign down not only to members of his cabinet but to the other tiers of government like the National Assembly (NASS), the judiciary, the state and local government officials. And not to forget the generality of the people.
Members of the NASS who are reputed for living large and sometimes licentiously would be circumspect in a regime that is remarkable for its lean and austere ministers and senior appointees. Even state governors would exercise enormous caution seeing a presidency that brooks no frivolity or wanton wastage of public funds.
It is unconscionable and outright inhuman that ministers ride about in long convoys of cars and senators exhibit exotic tastes and throw wild parties in a season of want and hopelessness for most of the citizenry.
Far too many bread winners have lost their jobs; for those who are still lucky to keep theirs, 31 days hardly make one pay day anymore. Even the so-called pay has been made hollow by the raging inflation of the past few months.
It must be said that the citizenry have been pushed back between a rock and a hard place and it behoves public officials to wean themselves of what we consider to be their abiding opulence and flamboyant lifestyles.''
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