The N11.92 billion estimated for food and foreign trips of President Muhammadu Buhari and Vice President Yemi Osinbajo in the N20.51 trillion 2023 budget proposal before the National Assembly was criticised on Tuesday by the Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) as being false and exaggerated.
Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko, the National Coordinator of HURIWA, tasked the President in a statement to drastically reduce the outrageous budget for food and travel to N1 billion and allocate the remaining N10.92 billion to farmers and other flood victims in order to expand the country’s agricultural sector.
The organisation claimed that it is illogical for the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management, and Social Development, Sadiya Umar Farouq, to avoid being grilled by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission on how billions intended for the needy were wasted.
The National School Feeding Program has reportedly cost the Federal Government $100 million to feed 10 million students.
Contrarily, more than six Nigerians fall into the category of extreme poverty every minute, pushing the nation’s total number of impoverished people closer to the 95.1 million estimate for this year set by the World Bank.
Additionally, Nigeria’s position of 103 out of 121 nations in the 2022 Global Hunger Index (GHI) indicates that the country has a serious level of hunger.
In its most recent Poverty and Prosperity Report for 2022, the World Bank claimed that Nigeria contributed three million people to worldwide severe poverty while also being “home to a large share of the global extreme poor.”
HURIWA’s Onwubiko commented, “It is unfortunate and detestable that elected leaders in Nigeria should exhibit this level of gluttony and avaricious at a time when many more Nigerians are starving to death.
“HURIWA tasks the President to drastically cut down on this bogus budget for foods and travels to just N1 billion so the remaining funds can go into promoting local agricultural productivity coupled with a robust security architecture.
“Some of the funds should also be allocated to farmers and other victims of floods to grow the nation’s agriculture sector. Also, anti-hunger measures must be introduced and implemented and the Humanitarian Affairs ministry must be dissolved and the minister made to answer hard questions before the EFCC on how billions meant for the poor were spent.
“It is perplexing and beyond logic that the more billions the government claims to have spent on feeding poor Nigerians, the hungrier Nigerians are becoming which means that the allocations are being siphoned.
“HURIWA demands a public TV debate with humanitarian affairs minister on these bogus claims within the next three days so we expose their falsehoods.”
