Former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar has condemned the President Muhammadu Buhari administration for donating the sum of half a million US dollars to Guinea Bissau at a time the administration had borrowed N13 trillion in its three and half years in office.
The presidential candidate of the main opposition, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) picked issues over what he saw as financial profligacy which he said has destroyed the nation’s economy.
Claiming moral authority as a former Vice President, he said this government gesture was coming at a time he had warned the administration to be more prudent with national resources.
A statement which originated from his campaign organisation in Abuja on Sunday said: “Recently, we had cause to counsel the Buhari administration to be more prudent with national resources after the government declared its intention to sell national assets built by previous administrations to fund their business as usual 2019 budget.
“Apparently, rather than give heed to our pro bono patriotic advise, the Buhari administration is persisting in the financial profligacy that has seen them destroy a once thriving economy.
“In the latest instance, the Buhari government has announced that it is making a $500,000 donation to Guinea Bissau, along with other material donations.
“Our response is to ask why a nation that has been officially named as the world headquarters for extreme poverty, will donate her resources to others instead of using them to solve pressing domestic problems?
“This is the same government that is so cash-strapped that it has so far borrowed ₦13 trillion in 3 years putting our economy in even greater peril. How prudent is it to go about taking loans from whomsoever cares to lend you money and then turn around to give out those same monies even when your own people are suffering the worst forms of poverty they have ever endured?
“We call on the Buhari administration to cut their coat according to their cloth. These huge loans they are collecting, only to squander it, will be repaid by future generations and limit the nation’s ability to invest in projects that will Get Nigeria Working Again.”
Atiku advised Buhari on what money should be used for saying: “There are over a million Internally Displaced Persons in Nigeria. If you cannot adequately support your own people in dire need, what is the wisdom in crossing borders to support others?
“We have the moral authority to question this administration’s profligacy and imprudence, because Atiku Abubakar, presidential candidate of the PDP was part of an administration that paid off Nigeria’s entire foreign debt.
“We are therefore concerned to see this government piling on debt and then squandering it away without any consideration for the needs of her own people.”
