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The African Democratic Congress (ADC) has called on President Muhammadu Buhari to be more sensitive to the plight of Nigerians and refrain from allocating very scarce resources to unproductive, resource draining projects, all in the name of welfare proejcts.
ADC in a statement, yesterday, by its National Publicity Secretary, Yemi Kolapo, frowned at the reported spending of hundreds of millions of naira daily on the feeding of school children, even at a time that schools were shut down.
The party queried the rationale behind such spending at a time funds should be committed to containing the spread of COVID-19 and mitigating the economic impact of both the pandemic and the fall in international oil prices.
According to Kolapo, the attempt by the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Disaster Management, Hajiya Sadiya Umar-Farouk, to rewrite the absurdity in the minds of Nigerians has further opened up the inadequacies of the current administration in the area of economic management.
“The Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Disaster Management, Hajiya Sadiya Umar-Farouk, as expected, denied reports that the Federal Government was spending N697 million daily on its school feeding programme. This denial was necessary, considering the heated controversy that trailed the insistence on continuing the project even while schools were shut. Her explanation, though not totally off point, however, revealed the penchant of the All Progressives Congress (APC) government for reckless spending even in the most difficult economic situations,” Kolapo said.
The ADC argued that the minister’s explanation that the Federal Government was only spending N4,200 per household monthly, for 3,131, 971 households was an indirect confirmation of the needlessness of such expenditure.
“N4, 200 per month for 3,131,971 households gives a total of N13.15billion monthly, while the daily expenditure comes to N438.5million. So, if the N697million daily spending being circulated appears monstrous, is the minister saying that spending N438.5million in the same vein is defensible?”
The ADC noted that the Federal Government could only earn the support of the masses by paying serious attention to economic efficiency in these hard times.
“Right now, anything other than distributing or allocating very scarce resources to their most valuable uses and minimising/eliminating wastes is not acceptable.
“The excuse that the programme had to be sustained under a very abnormal situation because vendors had been mobilised and purchases made, paints a picture of lazy thinking mixed with greed. This spending, whether it will now be targeted at the heads of the households or not, is meaningless in its entirety, and an abominable waste of insufficient resources,” Kolapo said.
