N27 Trillion 2024 Budget, Designed To Suffocate Poor Nigerians, PDP Opposes

The ‘Budget of Renewed Hope’ presented by President Bola Tinubu before a joint session of the National Assembly on Wednesday has been criticized by the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

According to the PDP, the N27.5trn budget estimates are aimed at oppressing poor Nigerians. In a statement by its spokesman, Debo Ologunagba, the party alleged that the budget presented by the All Progressives Congress (APC) administration contains inflated figures and duplicated items.

VerseNews reports that the PDP is calling on the National Assembly to thoroughly examine the proposed budget.

During his budget presentation, President Tinubu emphasized that the proposed budget will promote economic stability, reduce poverty, and enhance access to social security, among other objectives.

The President emphasized key focus areas including security, promoting local employment, ensuring macroeconomic stability, enhancing the investment climate, developing human capital, reducing poverty, and strengthening social security.

Providing a detailed breakdown of the budget projections, the President allocated N9.92 trillion for recurrent non-debt expenditure, N8.73 trillion for capital expenditure, N8.25 trillion for debt service, N18.32 trillion for revenue, N7.83 trillion for new borrowings, and N9.18 trillion for the deficit.

However, in a reaction hours after the budget proposal, the PDP described the budget estimates as a “huge disservice which, if allowed to pass, will further asphyxiate Nigerians and plunge our nation into more economic depression and hopelessness”.

“The PDP also describes the claim by President Tinubu that the budget is a Budget of Renewed Hope as conjured, unfounded and deceptive as the budget is completely devoid of concrete mechanisms to revive the economy, create jobs, address the comatose manufacturing and productive sectors, human capital development deficiencies and depleting life expectancy of Nigeria citizens,” the statement partly read.

“The 2024 budget is filled with heavily padded figures, duplicated items and several false statistics including claims of global increase in inflation rate as excuse for an impending excruciating increase in taxes and interest rate to the detriment of our productive sector.

“It is clear that the 2024 budget as proposed with its heavy provisions for luxury appetite of the Presidency and All Progressives Congress (APC) leaders which is predicated and expected to be funded from multilateral and bilateral foreign loans and increased taxes on Nigerians, is designed to further mortgage our nation and strangulate the already impoverished Nigerians.

“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 unrealizable in view of 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.”

The economy has been plunged into an abyss, the productive sector has been weakened, and the purchasing power of Nigerians has been wrecked by Tinubu’s adoption of N750 per US Dollar exchange rate, according to the opposition party.