Sacking govt officers not enough, withdraw budget, Fayose to Buhari

Ekiti State Governor, Mr Ayodele Fayose has said that controversies surrounding the Federal Government 2016 Budget cannot be addressed by mere sacking of the Director General of the Budget Office of the Federation and appointing a new one, insisting that the budget must be withdrawn from the National Assembly and a new and error free one represented.

Governor Fayose, who also queried the request by the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed for a “special funding arrangement for public media organizations to enable them to scale up their sensitization campaign against insurgency in the North-East,” said Nigerians need further explanations as to why special fund will be needed on Boko Haram that he (Lai Mohammed) said had already been defeated.

 In a release issued by his Special Assistant on Public Communications and New Media, Lere Olayinka, Governor Fayose said what the controversial 2016 budget required was a holistic approach, not just making one person scapegoat, adding that; “the President must take total responsibility for the budget scam and apologise to Nigerians for the government’s embarrassment caused by the display of gross incompetence.”

 Governor Fayose maintained that padding of the budget with strange figures, now being denied by Ministers was a clear intention to steal in advance, adding that; “Though it is good that the President listened to my call for the punishment of those responsible for the national embarrassment, mere sacking of officers at the Budget Office will not remove the stain splashed on Nigeria by the shameful budget.”

He likened blaming an imaginary “budget mafia” for the padding of the budget to a driver blaming someone else for not applying the brake when it should have been applied, saying; “the bulk stops on the President’s table, he can’t blame anyone apart from himself for this national shame.’’