In a statement issued on behalf of the former president on Sunday
October 4, Abubakar Sulaiman, the immediate past minister/deputy
chairman, National Planning Commission, branded the Governor of Kaduna
state, Mallam Nasir el-rufai a ‘liar’ for alleging that his
administration spent N64 billion on October 1 celebrations between 2010
and 2015. He added that Jonathan administration spent only N332.6
million for the celebration in 3 years - an average of N66m per year.
The statement reads:
"We were taken aback by the recent comment reportedly credited to His
Excellency, Governor Nasir El-Rufai where he claimed that the immediate
past President, His Excellency, Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan’s
administration spent N64billion to cover the country independence
anniversary spending in five years.
The break down, according to the governor showed that N13billion was
spent in 2011, N15billion in 2012 and N14billion in 2013 and N22billion
allegedly spent in 2014.
This tissue of lies was contained on his facebook
comment on Thursday. Ordinarily, we would have allowed this to go as
just ranting of a favour seeker , but for the sake of ordinary Nigerians
who were abreast of happenings under the administration and also those
who never did, we will like to set the record straight.
It is important to correct the misinformation so that the unsuspecting
public would not be misled.
For the record, a breakdown of our anniversary spending between 2012 to
2014 amounted to N332.6million. We challenge the Office of the
Government of the Federation (OSGF) to publish these details for the
consumption of the public.
For the record, a breakdown of our spending for this event between 2012
and 2104 goes thus; 2012-107.6million; 2013-45million and 2014 had
180million. So, the question here is where did the billions as claimed
by El-Rufai emanate from? Even though that of 2010 and 2011 are not
handy now, but it should be known that they all fall within the same
bracket as the one stated, except that the 2010 anniversary was a golden
one when the country marked her 50 year of independence. But even then ,
not such outrageous sum was either budgeted or expended .
Again, it is germane to explain the increase in the 2013 anniversary
spending for the purpose of accountability. The National Honours Award
Investiture was incorporated into the celebration, thus making it two
events in one, hence the N174,800,000.00 budget. We also want to add
that the said award investiture could not hold in 2013 and the approved
budget rolled over and was utilized to organise the investiture in 2014.
It is high time government functionaries desisted from abusing their
immunity by destroying history and trading on lies just to gain cheap
popularity or curry one favour or the other from certain quarters.
Perhaps President Olusegun Obasanjo was right in his assessment of
El-Rufai when he said in his latest memoir, My Watch that his vivid
recollection of him (El-Rufai)is his penchant for lying, for unfair
embellishment of stories and his inability to sustain loyalty for long.
That exactly is what El-Rufai has done with his ungodly fabrication of
lies against Jonathan government.
One hopes that President Buhari would be on guard against being misled
by the likes of El-Rufai who are hell bent on misinforming the Nigerian
publics.
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