The presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, has cautioned President Muhammadu Buhari to channel the $500,000 and other material donations it intends to make to Guinea Bissau to the over one million internally displaced persons in Nigeria.
He also urged the Buhari-led government to be more prudent with the nation’s resources.
Foreign Affairs Minister, Mr. Geoffrey Onyema, had announced last week that the Federal government approved US$500,000 electoral kits and a number of vehicles to support the conduct of legislative election in Guinea Bissau.
The minister said the money and other logistics are to help Guinea Bissau get out of what has been a difficult situation for a number of years.
But Atiku Abubakar, in a statement by his campaign organisation, wondered why a country whose leaders planned to sell its national assets would be donating money to a foreign country.
“Our response is to ask why a nation that has been officially named as the world headquarters of extreme poverty, will donate her resources to others instead of using them to solve pressing domestic problems.
“This is the same government that is so cash-strapped that it has so far borrowed N13trillion in three years.
“How prudent is it to go about taking loans from whosoever cares and then turn around to give out the money when your own people are suffering the worst form of poverty?
“We call on the Muhammadu Buhari administration to cut its coat according to its cloth. He should stop donating like Father Christmas. He should attend to the need(s) of Nigerians.”
Atiku Abubakar said having been part of a government that paid off Nigeria’s entire foreign debt in the past, there is no way he would pretend to be unconcerned with the way Buhari is running Nigeria’s economy.