. ‘FG budget skewed against North’
Kano State Governor Rabiu Kwankwaso has said Nigeria is drifting towards calamity because President Jonathan lacks the competence and guts to properly manage the nation’s affairs.
Speaking during a meeting with the leadership of Northern Elders Forum in Kano on Tuesday night, the governor said also that the Federal Government’s 2014 budget favoured the South-South and the South-East to the detriment of the North.
Kwankwaso last month defected from the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP), following months of bickering over irreconcilable differences with Jonathan and the party’s leadership.
He joined the main opposition All Progressives Congress (APC), for which he is a likely presidential candidate to face Jonathan if he decides to seek re-election in 2015.
The governor came down hard on the President on Tuesday night, saying Jonathan has failed to put Nigeria on the right trackin spite of advice he received from leaders from within and outside the country.
He said, “When we met with the president, as Northern governors, he told us that the former US Secretary of State, Lady Clinton, told him that as President he has to look at the issue of the North very critically. She noted that there was an imbalance in terms of patronage, appointments and sharing of resources.
“He assured that he was looking at those comments and that was why he was delaying appointments into boards and so on. Since that meeting, we have not seen anything or changes, so it is my conclusion that the President lacks the capacity and courage to do the right thing.”
Kwankwaso, who was quoted in a statement by his spokesman Halilu Ibrahim Dantiye, said the Federal Government’s 2014 budget is heavily skewed in favour of the South-South and South-East, and ignored the needs of the North.
He said a situation where a section of the country is suffering from illiteracy, underdevelopment and misery while the other section has more than enough is not good for national unity.
“We have had enough crises in this country and it is not right to plant seeds for crisis in the future,” he said.
“Look at the North East that was allocated N2 billion in the current budget. N2 billion is what Mr. President allocated to non-APC states for supporting him, while N111 billion was allocated to the South-East and South-South. This is not close to fairness.”
He said the level of poverty, insecurity and joblessness in the North should not be happening in any civilised society.
Kwankwaso said his position on national issues was not premised on religion, ethnicity or sectionalism but based on the desire for all Nigerians to be treated equally.
He urged the National Assembly to oppose what he called injustice being perpetrated by the government.
Daily Trust tried to get the reaction of the Presidency on Kwankwaso’s remarks, but Jonathan’s spokesman Reuben Abati and political adviser Ahmed Gulak did not answer telephone calls or reply to text messages sent to them yesterday.
Also, the president’s senior special assistant on public affairs, Dr. Doyin Okupe, could not be reached, as an aide said he was attending a meeting when our reporter called.
In their separate remarks at the meeting with Kwankwaso, the chairman of the elders forum, Alhaji Yusuf Maitama Sule, and his deputy Dr. Paul Unongo said they were not satisfied with political developments in the country especially as they affect the North.
They said their visit to the governor was to, among others, look at issues that would foster national unity, even development and responsible governance.
Source: Daily Trust
