Member of the House of Representatives caucus of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) have given reasons for their protest against President Muhammadu Buhari during the budget presentation at the National Assembly on Wednesday.
Buhari entered the National Assembly on Wednesday at about 12:40pm and immediately set about the business of the day. However, he was soon shouted down with screams of “nooooo”, “nooooo”, “lieessss” when he started talking about the strides of his administration.
Addressing journalists shortly after the presentation, leader of the group, Honourable Chukwuma Onyema, said poor implementation of the 2018 budget precipitated their action, noting that the executive resorted to selective implementation of their own proposal, but not what was approved by the National Assembly.
He expressed displeasure at the manner in which government is going about the implementation of the Social Investment Programme, which he said is tantamount to vote buying.
“We condemned in entirety everything that has been presented, because you have not implemented even up to ten per cent of the previous budget, and now you are bringing another one,” Onyema stated.
He, however, attributed the industrial action being embarked upon by the Parliamentary Staff Association of Nigeria (PASAN) to non-implementation of the previous budget.
He noted that they expected an effective budget performance and implementation before the presentation of another, and berated the All Progressives Congress (APC) lawmakers for applauding the president during the presentation. According to Onyema, the APC lawmakers are “trying to curry favour”.
The caucus said the President would not have come for this year’s presentation if he was to face questions on the implementation of the 2018 budget.