The Peoples Democratic Party has strongly criticized the 2024 fiscal year budget proposed by President Bola Tinubu to the National Assembly, which amounts to N27.5 trillion. The party has described it as deceitful, strangulating, and hopeless and warned that if the budget is passed, it will further push the nation into economic depression and hopelessness.
In a statement released on Wednesday by the National Publicity Secretary of the PDP, Debo Ologunagba, the opposition party urged the National Assembly to reject the 2024 budget as presented. The party cited its constitutional duty under Sections 80, 81, and 82 of the 1999 Constitution to disassemble the budget and make provisions that are critical to the growth of the economy and the welfare of Nigerians.
According to Ologunagba, the budget has no concrete plans to revive the economy, create jobs, address the comatose manufacturing and productive sectors, address human capital development deficiencies, or deplete the life expectancy of Nigerian citizens. He also alleged that the budget is riddled with heavily padded figures, duplicated items, and false statistics, including claims of a global increase in the inflation rate.
The PDP National Publicity Secretary further declared that the budget is predicated on multilateral and bilateral foreign loans and increased taxes on Nigerians, which will mortgage the nation and further impoverish Nigerians.
The statement read in part, “The budget framework with respect to Recurrent Expenditure Vote of N9.9 trillion, Capital Expenditure Vote of N8.7 trillion and N8.25 trillion for debt services is unsustainable and unrealiaable given the stated outstanding debt and proposed borrowing which is targeted mainly to finance consumption, luxury appetite and debt servicing.
“The lack of concrete and verifiable action plans to revive the manufacturing, energy, agricultural, and education sectors which are the main drivers of any economy is a pointer that the Tinubu-led APC government is bereft of ideas and completely disconnected from the reality of life being faced by Nigerians.
“By adopting a defeatist N750 per US Dollar exchange rate, President Tinubu has further plunged our economy into the abyss, weakened our productive sector, wrecked the purchasing power of Nigerians and the capacity of the youths to be creative, recognizing that it will be almost impossible for Small and Medium Enterprises as well as Startups to access capital under such a suffocating budget.
“Every responsible leadership strives to work and defend its national currency. Unfortunately, the Tinubu-led government has surrendered our nation’s currency and pride to the whims and caprices of the so-called market forces.
“The PDP insists that with a transparent, honest, and innovative management of resources and economic potentials of the nation; without inordinate pursuit of luxury consumption by a few individuals in leadership positions, as being witnessed under the APC, the economy will witness a rapid turn-around and the Naira strengthened to its value of below N200 per US Dollar bequeathed by the PDP to the APC in 2015
“This 2024 budget as presented by President Tinubu therefore represents hopelessness for Nigerians. It is pathetic that the President whose main duty is to provide for the security and welfare of Nigerians as provided for in Section 14 (2) (b) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended) could present a budget that is not geared towards the attainment of that Constitutional duty imposed on him.”
