Edo State Governor Adams Oshiomhole on Sunday berated the immediate past President, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, for allegedly appropriating over N 1.2 trillion, more than half of the budget in his government, accounting for anger and frustration among Nigerians.
He said the money spent by the former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s government on subsidy which he alleged was 20 billion naira was yearning for attention.
According to him, “the last government under President Goodluck Jonathan quadrupled the number to N1.2 trillion. When your total earning is about 2 trillion naira and you spend more than half for petrol, how much will you use for your house? How much money will you use for clothing of your children? How much will you use to send your children to school?”
“Under President Olusegun Obasanjo, we were talking of 20 billion naira for subsidy, and Obasanjo would ask me, Comrade, 20 billion naira can build XYZ road. I think the last one was about N40 to N45 billion a year for subsidy.”
He stated that, “government must make investments in research, in education, in technology. If we spend all our money or half of it on subsidy, we will drink petrol without vehicles for us to ride in. It simply doesn’t make sense anymore.
“The life of a nation is not different from the life of a human being. When you are traveling on a road which you believe will take you to a destination, sixteen years down the road, it appears to be getting longer and longer, only a fool will continue to travel on that road.”
The governor who affirmed his support for the Minister of Petroleum and President Muhammadu Buhari leadership style, however, appealed to Nigerians to make sacrifices in the face of the daunting economic challenges facing the nation.
“We now have a president that cares, a President that is not corrupt, a President that commands respect within the country and outside the country. When he asks you, change your ways of life, look at my own lifestyle, let us restart, we have all sinned in the past, let us repent so that we might not sin again, I think it makes sense to listen.
There will be sacrifice, so, no pain, no gain. I believe this is the time to accept a lot of pains, so that once free, the gains will come. I know under President Buhari the gains will come. I know that this time will come and go and Nigeria will maintain its progress.”
High point of the ceremony was the fund raising for a new auditorium of the church and the dedication of the new baby by Charles Osazuwa.
