Atiku Vs Jonathan On 2011 Budget: Politics Aside

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No Nigerian government has ever contradicted itself like the present administration and this is becoming very embarrassing as it depicts a disjointed team. No matter what some groups may think or say, this is not good for the image of governance in this country.

When the former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar wrote to President Goodluck Jonathan what sounded like Abraham Lincoln's letter to his son's school teacher on the 2011 budget, the Presidency responded by saying that "It is regrettable that a letter purported to have been written by a former Vice-President should contain such misrepresentations and Atiku's stand depicted the failure of the writer to understand the global economic and financial dynamics of the period 2008-2010."

And in a direct contradiction of what the Jonathan government would want Nigerians to feel about Atiku, the same Presidency wholeheartedly acknowledged that "some of the issues Atiku talked about (concerning the budget and economy) are those which have been identified by the government and which are currently being addressed by the President Jonathan's administration."

Now let's face the facts: Since the advent of the current dispensation, the present administration has presided over the highest budgetary expenditure of over N4 trillion in one year; recorded the highest rate of borrowing in any one year; lost the highest level of reserves in normal times both external and excess crude account; and had the worst economic growth in the last seven years as disclosed by several international credit rating agencies.

It is very insulting on the sensibilities of informed Nigerians for the Finance Minister Olusegun Aganga to say that the Nigerian economy is doing very well and that "Atiku misrepresented facts on the state of the economy to score cheap political points." This same minister days ago could not even agree with his subordinate- the CBN Governor, over the authenticity of the  figures used in budgetary calculations. Truth be told, the Nigerian economy is doing well only in the imagination of the recently repatriated finance minister who is fast turning into government's chief propagandist using voodoo statistics to confuse not only his boss but the entire nation.

Atiku Vs Jonathan On 2011 Budget: Politics Aside