Following yesterday’s signing of the 2020 Appropriation Bill by President Muhammadu Buhari, Nigerians went on a Twitter rampage to express their displeasure over an aspect of the development. The outrage stemmed from the President’s approval of the sum of N37 billion for the purpose of renovating the National Assembly Complex.
Nairametrics reported that the N37 billion is different from the N128 billion that was allocated for the National Assembly in the 2020 Budget. Now, many Nigerians are angered because they simply cannot understand why the National Assembly needs N37 billion for a renovation exercise.
Misplaced priorities: It is understandable why Nigerians could not think about this without getting emotionally worked up by it. The level of misplaced priority in this country is mind-boggling, and it appears the people are fed up.
Just to bring the actual issue here into perspective, it should be noted that only the sum of N48 billion was budgeted for education in 2020. A simple comparison of the amount budgeted for National Assembly repairs and the amount budget for education goes a long way to show how Nigerian leaders think about development.
https://twitter.com/Successking10/status/1207215813746397184
Other Twitter users shared this same sentiment, including E.O Ebubechukwu who simply called the government “non-functional”. See his tweet below.
Our primary/secondary school education curriculum should have been changed by now.
Most of Charles Darwin postulations have been proven to be wrong or outdated. The concept of atom in Ababio doesn't hold waters again.
But we have a non-functional government that…… #37billion— Eziokwu (@Iameziokwu) December 18, 2019
[READ MORE: Buhari votes for African energy corp’s $1 billion recapitalisation)
Omo Kiikan also highlighted other reasons why the approval of N37 billion for the National Assembly renovation is simply wrong. According to him, many Nigerian hospitals lack drugs, even as basic amenities such as roads are absent. In all these, Nigerian leaders think it is more important to budget N37 billion for the renovation of the office of some 109 lawmakers. It is quite interesting!
Our president have just approved #37billion to renovate a building that will house 109 people when our roads are bad, refineries not working, no drugs in our hospitals and so on. But if I talk, They will say it's hate speech https://t.co/8mMT6x4Otw
— Omo Kiikan 💙💐 (@OmoKiikan) December 18, 2019
Ebere Nwankwo also wondered how Nigerians offended its leaders. He also wondered aloud what kind of leadership Nigerians have. Sincerely, we are over here wondering the same thing.
Where did Nigerians offend the 9th Assembly?
How did they approve such idiocy: #37Billion Naira for renovation of the National Assembly & paltry #48 billion for capital expenditure in Education..No roads ..no good health facilities
What kind of Leadership is this? pic.twitter.com/DmMzFxpxIs
— Ebere Nwankwo Esq. (@nwankwoesq) December 18, 2019
Yet another Twitter user, M Abba, made another very critical observation which calls for further reflection. See for yourself below.
https://twitter.com/M_Abba_/status/1207171720953634816
In the meantime, there are indications that the criticisms have already reached the presidency because Nairametrics reported this morning that President Muhammadu Buhari might seek to amend the 2020 budget.
