Independence Expense: Jonathan Administration Faults el-Rufai
It said nothing could be farther from the truth than the said claim by the governor, as the administration only spent N332.6million between 2012 and 2014.
el-Rufai had last Thursday, October 1 posted a comment on his Facebook page alleging that the immediate past Jonathan administration spent N64billion to cover the country’s independence anniversary spending in five years.
According to him, a break down of how the money was spent showed that N13billion was spent in 2011, N15billion in 2012 and N14billion in 2013, while N22billion was allegedly spent in 2014.
But in a statement signed on its behalf by the immediate past minister and deputy chairman of national planning, Dr. Abubakar Sulaiman, the Jonathan administration described el-Rufai’s allegation as tissue of lies.
Noting that the past administration was taken aback by the governor’s claims, Sulaiman said ordinarily, they “would have allowed this to go as just ranting of a favour seeker, but for the sake of ordinary Nigerians who were abreast of happenings under the administration and also those who never did”.
Regretting that what el-Rufai has done was to make ungodly fabrication of lies against the Jonathan government, Sulaiman expressed hope that President Muhammadu Buhari “would be on guard against being misled by the likes of el-Rufai who are hell bent on misinforming the Nigerian publics”.
Stating that only N332.6 million was spent between 2012 and 2014, Sulaiman said, “For the record, a breakdown of our anniversary spending between 2012 to 2014 amounted to N332.6million. We challenge the Office of the Secretary to Government of the Federation( OSGF) to publish these details for the consumption of the public. For the record, a breakdown of our spending for this event between 2012 and 2104 goes thus; 2012- 107.6million; 2013-45million and 2014 had N180million. So, the question here is where did the billions as claimed by el-Rufai emanate from?”
On expenditure for 2010 and 2011, Sulaiman who said they were not handy at the moment explained that they all fall within the same bracket as the ones stated, “except that the 2010 anniversary was a golden one when the country marked her 50 years of independence”.
He, however, even though it was a golden anniversary in 2010 was it was not that such outrageous sum was either budgeted or expended.
On why the 2013 anniversary spending was increased, Sulaiman said the National Honours Award
Investiture was incorporated into the celebration, making it two events in one, hence the N174,800,000.00 budget.
“We also want to add that the said award investiture could not hold in 2013 and the approved budget rolled over and was utilized to organise the investiture in 2014”, the statement made available to LEADERSHIP noted.
Urging public officer to be cautious about their utterances, he said, “It is high time government
functionaries desisted from abusing their immunity by destroying history and trading on lies just to gain cheap popularity or curry one favour or the other from certain quarters.
“Perhaps President Olusegun Obasanjo was right in his assessment of el-Rufai when he said in his latest memoir, My Watch that his vivid recollection of him (el Rufai)is his penchant for lying, for unfair embellishment of stories and his inability to sustain loyalty for long”.
source
leadership.ng news
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