The Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA), has kicked against the proposed allocation of N15 billion in the 2024 budget by the Federal Executive Council for the completion of the Vice President’s residence.
The right group described such move as scandalous, Insanely extravagant, offensive and insensitive to Nigeria’s current state of hyper-inflation, mass starvation, declining economy due to poor governance and profligacy.
HURIWA In a statement signed by its national coordinator, Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko maintained that it is unacceptable for Vice President Shettima to push through such an insane initiative that will invest a humongous amount of public funds at a time when there are 133 million multidimensional poor households in Nigeria.
The group said from the statement issued on behalf of the vice president, it is unambiguously evident, that His Excellency has enjoyed public funds for far too long so much so that he is completely cut off from the realities on the ground including the fact that even in his home state of Borno, hundreds of thousands of the elderly, women and children still stay in many internally displaced persons camps just as many can’t find three quality square meals daily.
HURIWA notes that Vice President Shettima has been fed off taxpayers’ money for far too long during his two decades serving as Governor of Borno State and years spent as a Senator. He retired into opulence due to generous disengagement benefits received through commonwealth allocations from Borno state residents. Therefore, N15 billion means nothing to him.
“If we may as His Excellency that as the Vice President, please Sir, have you no roof over your head currently on the bill of taxpayers as the vice president of Nigeria?”
“We find it very illogical and warped, the attempt to say that the plan to invest such a colossal amount to complete a building project is a good step because the project was abandoned by successive governments. We think the best thing to do at the moment is for government to consider selling off the uncompleted property and invest the proceeds into social welfare schemes to bail out millions of Nigerians from their perennial poverty-infested living conditions or better still build a specialist hospital with that huge sum on that land and then allocate one of the seized Abuja mansions by the EFCC as the residence of vice president or have all the forfeited housing assets auctioned by the EFCC?”
HURIWA questions why one of Abuja mansions forfeited by convicted politicians, public servants, business moguls and internet fraudsters seized by EFCC could not serve as alternate housing arrangements for VP Shettima rather than committing huge sums towards building another mansion.
Mr Stanley Nkwocha media aide insists that spending N15 billion on constructing new residences does not constitute wasteful spending since Goodluck Jonathan’s administration awarded this contract initially abandoned over ten years ago.
HURIWA believes there is nothing altruistic about committing such massive amounts towards setting up new residences when millions suffer absolute poverty progressively afflicting people aside from those already affected in 2018.
It seems unreasonable given present circumstances where young mothers throw away their babies because they lack resources even though past administrations initiated these projects but couldn’t complete them.
