PRP fumes over inadequate provision for social investment, poverty alleviation

From:Femi Oyelola, Kaduna

The Peoples Redemption Party (PRP) has expressed dismay over the inadequate provision for social investment and poverty alleviation programs in the 2024 Appropriation Bill jointly presented to the National Assembly on November 29, 2023, by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
The National National Chairman of the Party Falalu Bello stated this in a statement made available to the media in Kaduna yesterday.
The party also advised the Federal Government to stop paying lip service to resolve pending challenges of the university system, lack of concrete framework to address local government autonomy, and lack of political will to create opportunities for Nigerian investors.
Bello also condemned the continuous devaluation of the naira and very much, the incentive capital projects such as the renovation of the residence of the President and Vice President in Lagos, the budgetary provision to the office of the Chief of Personal Staff that ran into billions of naira.
The Party stressed that the 2024 budget as seen and analyzed is one on which Nigerians should not place hope to promote development and protect their welfare, saying it is just a cosmetic that is aimed at glorifying mediocrity and continuous impoverishment of our people.
“The Bola Tinubu Administration must stop the continuous devaluation of the naira which it has done continuously since it came to power.
“We hope that the Town Hall Meetings by the two Chambers of National Assembly will serve as an avenue to hear Nigerians and to redress some of the issues raised by us and many other concerned Nigerians so that we may have a decent place to call our country.
“Further to all said above, the 2024 Appropriation Bill shows that the federal government plans to give more money to state and local governments.
“But the Government does not seem concerned about putting functional machinery in place to ensure that such funds will be properly utilized, especially as it is a common knowledge across the country that the governors not only do not do enough to take development to the doorsteps of their people, they also strangulate local governments by not giving them access to the funds meant for them from federation accounts.”