Advocacy group, Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Projects has faulted plans by the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nysom Wike, to spend N15bn on a ‘befitting residence’ for the Vice-President of Nigeria, Kashim Shettima.
The group also decried the N2.8bn budget for publicity, stressing that the spending was unnecessary and wasteful.
SERAP expressed its opposition to the budgetary allocations in a statement on Sunday by its Deputy Director, Kolawole Oluwadare.
Oluwadare urged the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, to use his constitutional authority to reject the plans by Wike to spend such huge money on what he described as ‘unnecessary and wasteful’, especially at a time when the country was battling a rising debt profile.
“The plan to spend N15bn on ‘a befitting residence’ for the Vice President is a fundamental breach of the Nigerian Constitution and the country’s international anti-corruption and human rights obligations.
“The National Assembly, including the Senate, has a constitutional responsibility to address the country’s debt crisis, including by rejecting wasteful and unnecessary spending to satisfy the personal comfort and lifestyles of public officials.
“The National Assembly cannot continue to fail to fulfill its oversight function. The Senate must assert and demonstrate its independence by checking and rejecting all wasteful and unnecessary spending by the executive. Punch
