PDP urges NASS to reject Tinubu’s 2024 budget

The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has described President Bola Tinubu’s N27.5 trillion budget proposal to the National Assembly for the fiscal year 2024 as deceptive, strangulating, and hopeless.

The PDP said in a statement issued by its National Publicity Secretary, Debo Ologunagba, on Wednesday that if the budget is passed, it will plunge the country into severe economic hardship and despondency.

The opposition party accused the National Assembly, in accordance with Sections 80, 81, and 82 of the 1999 Constitution, with rejecting the 2024 budget as proposed.

The PDP calls on the National Assembly pursuant to its Constitutional duty under Section 80, 81 and 82 of the 1999 Constitution to reject the 2024 budget as presented and use its legislative powers to disassemble the budget and make provisions that are critical and pivotal to the growth of the economy and the welfare of Nigerians,” the party said.

Ologunagba said the budget is devoid of concrete mechanisms to revive the economy, create jobs, address the comatose manufacturing and productive sectors, human capital development deficiencies, and depleting the life expectancy of Nigerian citizens.

He alleged that the 2024 budget is filled with heavily padded figures, duplicated items, and several false statistics, including claims of global increase in the inflation rate.

The PDP National Publicity Secretary declared that the budget is predicated and expected to be funded from multilateral and bilateral foreign loans and increased taxes on Nigerians and is designed to further mortgage the nation and strangulate the already impoverished Nigerians.

The statement read in part, “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 unrealiaable given the stated outstanding debt and proposed borrowing which is targeted mainly to finance consumption, luxury appetite and debt servicing