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By Amuda Dan Sulaiman FAB.
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the Advanced Peoples Democratic Alliance (APDA) in Kogi State have faulted the N147.8 billion 2018 budget proposal presented by Governor Yahaya Bello to the state of House of Assembly.
The two opposition parties in the state, which compared the 2017 budget with the current one, described it as unrealistic.
They argued that the budget proposal would not be able to meet the yearning and aspirations of the citizens of the state.
Governor Bello had on Thursday presented the budget proposal christened, “Budget of Sustainable Growth” to the state legislature for the year 2018, which he said would focus on the fulfillment of his electioneering campaign promises.
While the PDP described the budget as a “voodoo” that would not improve the economic well-being of the citizens of the state, the APDA said it was a “budget of fake premises” whose intent was to deceive the people in order for Governor Bello to secure their votes for the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, come 2019.
The PDP state Publicity Secretary, Mr. Bode Ogunmola, who spoke to journalists in Lokoja said that it was an error on the part of the government to increase the Internally Generated Revenue in the 2018 budget by 100 per cent in the face of a shrinking economy and shortage of business availability.
Ogunmola accused the state government of using its higher capital receipt to build bridges and roads with no meaningful results, while neglecting the other vital sectors, especially health and education.
He said, “It’s a voodoo budget. The key question to ask is what is the performance of the 2017 budget? If you listen to the 2017 budget, is there any change in the economic situation of the people of Kogi State?
“When you even carry the higher percentage of your capital receipt to building bridges and roads that are not yielding any income and you have to be servicing such loans, how will the economy increase? That is why there is poverty in Kogi State today. That is why the education sector is going down. That is why our primary healthcare centres are in shambles. That is why our rural roads are bad because there is no money for all of these. Government just keep borrowing to build bridges. It is a hallmark of bad leadership.”
On his part, the state Chairman of APDA, Hon. Abdulmumini Ibrahim, described the 2018 appropriation bill as “a budget of fake premises that remains unattainable.”
Ibrahim said that the governor’s budget proposal was full of lies and aimed at deceiving the people of the state in order to get their votes for APC in the 2019 election.
“He (Bello) cannot achieve what he has in that budget. It is a budget of lies, it is a budget of fake premises. He will just use it to deceive the people of Kogi State to vote for APC come 2019,” he said.
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