Dogara to Tinubu: provide padded budget facts

The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara has challenged the National leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Ahmed Tinubu to provide facts on his accusation of budget padding by the two outgoing presiding officers of the National Assembly.

In a statement Tuesday by his Media aide, Turaki Hassan, the Speaker said Tinubu accusation was as a result of his political ambitions.

He also said the 8th Assembly has performed its legislative responsibilities well where the executive fell short of providing good governance.

It reads: “We have noted the statement issued on April 21, 2019 by Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu wherein he stated his reasons for sponsoring or supporting some aspirants to various leadership positions in the forthcoming 9th Assembly. Ordinarily, this would not have elicited any response from His Excellency, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Rt. Hon Yakubu Dogara, as Asiwaju is entitled to sponsor those he believes will have no choice but answer to his dog whistles anytime he blows same in his capacity as the self-acclaimed National Leader of his party.

“If Asiwaju had confined his intervention to stubborn facts, this response would not have been necessary. He, however, used the opportunity to manufacture falsehoods and paint a non-existing picture of the stewardship of Mr. Speaker and the work of the 8th House of Representatives under his watch. It is therefore, incumbent on us to set the records straight for posterity.

“Asiwaju Tinubu accused the leadership of the National Assembly of stymieing “the APC legislative initiatives while attempting to hoist noxious reactionary and self-interested legislation on the nation”.

He said further: “Just look at the way Saraki and Dogara and their ilk hijacked the Budget Process these past four years. National budgets were delayed and distorted as these actors repeatedly sought to pad budgets with pet projects that would profit them”.

He continued, “Even worse, they cut funds intended to prosper projects that would have benefited the average person. After four years of their antics halting the progress of government, we should do all we can to prevent a repeat of their malign control of the National Assembly.”

He generously used the usual unexplained words like installing a progressive leadership and so on.

“We do not expect Asiwaju Tinubu to dwell on brazen mendacity, much less  murder facts and decorum in his rabid bid to justify his patently clear fascist agenda of controlling all levers of power in Nigeria. Asiwaju Tinubu’s nocturnal agenda has no parallel in the history of any democracy and it is more loathsome when he throws caution to the winds and maligns government officials who are doing a yeoman’s job of stabilising the government of President Muhammadu Buhari, even in spite of political differences.

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