The Coalition of United Political Parties (CUPP), has taken a swipe at President Bola Tinubu for granting approval to suspended Minister of Humanitarian Services, Betta Edu, to spend N3billion on the verification of the national social register.
Speaking in a statement issued in Abuja Tuesday, CNPP said President Tinubu’s action was a mindless attack on the nation’s collective purse and an unending profligacy of the presidency.
On report monitored online showed a leaked memo from the Office of Chief of the Staff to the President, Femi Gbajabiamila, dated December 18, 2023, which conveyed the approval for the release of N3bn from the Covid-19 Palliative Fund for the verification of the National Social Register.
The Presidency, through the Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Mr. Bayo Onanuga, has also acknowledged the memo as authentic.
He also called for patience from Nigerians and warned against a media trial over the matter though the memo had gone viral on social media.
Reacting to the development, the CUPP in a memo signed by its National Secretary, Chief Peter Ameh, described the President’s approval as a mindless attack on the nation’s collective purse and an unending profligacy of the presidency.
“Coalition United Political Parties CUPP is distressed by the report emanating from Saharareporters of the approval by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu through the Chief of Staff Femi Gbajabiamila to the suspended Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation to expend an outrageous and mind-boggling sum of N3,000,000,000(three billion naira) to verify the national register of the poor.
“This reckless and mindless spending on verification of national register reflects a lack of fiscal discipline and responsibility that has become a hallmark of President Tinubu’s government who in the guise of helping the poor, keeps elevating cronyism as an art, which we ignorantly thought had gone with President Buhari’s administration.
“CUPP believes that a prudent approach could have achieved the same goal with less of our tax money through the acquisition of the same national register from the thirty-six states of the federation and FCT wherein the rural areas are predominantly domiciled and is pained that this elementary form of conservation of public funds was willfully neglected on the altar of cronyism, raising CUPP’s concern and that of majority of Nigerians about the financial stewardship and the efficient allocation of our scarce resources by this government to projects that will truly be beneficial to the masses,” the statement read.
