2020 budget: PDP rejects slash in health, education allocations

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has rejected the federal government’s slashing of the 2020 budgetary allocations for basic health care from N44.4 billion to N25.5billion and the Universal Basic Education (UBE) budget from N111.7 billion to N51.1 billion.

The party said the cut in projected funds allotted to basic needs of the citizenry, depicts the height of insensitivity to the plights of Nigerians by the Muhammadu Buhari – led All Progressives Congress (APC) government.

It therefore, charged President Buhari to immediately recall the budgetz rework the figures to reflect a 100 per cent increase in the initial figures as a step forward towards meeting the needs of the citizens.

The PDP insisted that in slashing the budget for primary health to N25.5 billion (a 42 per cent cut) and UBE budget to N51.1 billion (a 54 per cent cut), in a country of over 200 million people, who are already economically overburden, further exposes that the APC never had the welfare of Nigerians at heart.

The party said no government, which genuinely means well for its citizens, will vote a paltry N25.5 billion for basic health care, while allocating N27.7 billion for the renovation of the National Assembly complex.

While the PDP has nothing against any effort to improve on the working condition of the Nation Assembly, it argued that placing the renovation of the National Assembly complex above health care is a scandalous misplacement of national priority by President Buhari and APC.

In a statement by its spokesperson, Kola Ologbondiyan, the party said “moreover, our party has been made aware that this development does not reflect the views of majority of the federal lawmakers.

“A critical analysis of the allocations indicate that with the N25.5 billion voted for primary health care in a country of over 200 million citizens, President Buhari and the APC plan to spend only about N125 per Nigerian at the primary health care level, within the 2020 fiscal year.

“In the same vein, with the N51.1 billion allocation for basic education in a country of a  estimated 43 million school-age children, the APC federal government is deeming it proper to spend only N1,186 per child at the UBE level in 2020 fiscal year.

“The PDP wonders if the APC government targets to achieve more out-of-school children as well as more health need deficit in our country.

“Our party therefore, rejects this collusion by the APC-led federal executive and their presiding officers in the National Assembly to downgrade the health need of our people as well as the education necessity of our children.

“It is even more distressing that the APC administration would still cut the primary healthcare budget in spite of the recent confession by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Boss Mustapha, that our health sector had gone moribund despite claims of interventions by the current administration.

“Moreover, the slashing of the budget, for basic education despite the poor state of the sector since the last five years, shows that the APC administration has no value for education and prefers to draw our nation back in global competitiveness in critical sectors,” the statement averred.

The PDP therefore, charged President Buhari to prioritize the welfare and development of Nigerians by cutting the size of his government, clipping its luxuries, curbing the unbridled corruption by APC leaders so as to make more resources available for the health and education needs of the citizens.