Immediate past President, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, has denied claims by Governor Nasir el-Rufai of Kaduna State that his administration spent N64 billion to organize Nigeria’s independence celebrations for three years.
According to the governor, Jonathan
spent N13 billion in 2011, N15 billion in 2012 and N14 billion in 2013 and N22
billion in 2011, bringing the total to N64 billion.
However, Jonathan denied the claim,
saying only N332.6 million was spent during the three-year period and chided
el-Rufai for deliberately lying to confuse the public and give his
administration a bad name.
Jonathan, who responded to the
allegation yesterday, described the huge figure as figment of el-Rufai’s
imagination and a fabricated lie by a favour-seeker.
In a statement in Abuja, through his
former Minister of National Planning, Minister/Deputy Chairman, National
Planning Commission, Dr. Abubakar Sulaiman, Jonathan said: “For the record, a
breakdown of our anniversary spending between 2012 to 2014 amounted to N332.6
million.
“We challenge the Office of the
Government of the Federation to publish these details for the consumption of
the public.
“A breakdown of our spending for
this event between 2012 and 2104 goes thus: 2012, N107.6 million; 2013, N45
million and 2014, 180 million. So, the question here is where did the billions,
as claimed by el-Rufai, emanate from?”
The former President said though he
did not have the figures for 2010 and 2011, expenditure for the two years fell
within the threshold of what was spent in the last three years and there was no
attempt to overspend the country’s resources as claimed by the governor.
He said his administration never
budgeted nor spent the outrageous amount alleged by el-Rufai and pointed out
that the increment in the 2010 celebration budget was due to the fact that the
nation celebrated its golden anniversary that year.
Jonathan also explained that the
increase in the 2013 anniversary spending to N174.8 million was due to the
incorporation of the National Honours Award Investiture into the event, making
it a two-in-one celebration, which was actually done in 2014.
‘Don’t destroy history’
The former President warned
government functionaries to desist from abusing the immunity enjoyed by them by
destroying history and trading lies just to earn cheap popularity or curry
favour from certain quarters.
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 former President, Chief
Olusegun Obasanjo, was right in his assessment of el-Rufai when he said in his
latest memoirs, My Watch, that his vivid recollection of el-Rufai is his
penchant for lying, unfair embe-llishment of stories and inability to sustain
loyalty for long.
“That exactly is what el-Rufai has
done with his ungodly fabrication of lies against Jonathan’s government.
“One hopes that President Buhari
would be on guard against being misled by the likes of el-Rufai, who are hell
bent on misinforming Nigerians.”
No comments:
Post a Comment