CUPP to NASS: Protest non-signing of Electoral Bill, boycott Buhari’s budget presentation

In absolute resentment to President Muhammadu Buhari’s decline to assent to the Electoral Act Amendment Bill, the Coalition of United Political Parties (CUPP) has called on federal lawmakers in opposition political parties to boycott the President’s 2019 budget presentation on Wednesday. The spokesman of CUPP, Ikenga Imo Ugochinyere, in a statement on Sunday, said the lawmakers need to register their displeasure to the many undemocratic decisions of the APC administration and several inactions of the President, which it said, slow down pace of national development. The coalition reasoned that the boycott will portray their condemnation of “impunity, non-implementation of past budgets, abuse of state institutions, incompetent driven economic crisis, deaths of many Nigerians, intimidation, abuse of appropriation laws and refusal to sign the electoral act for free and fair elections”. Ugochinyere said: “Our call for the heroic, patriotic and courageous walk out/Boycott of the 2019 Budget presentation on Wednesday, 19th December, 2018 is hinged on the following national interest based economic and political reasons – refusal by President Buhari to substantially implement previous budgets from 2015 to 2018 which led to rise in poverty, waste and sufferings of Nigerians, refusal to sign the Electoral Act Amendment Bill that will guarantee free and fair election, reduce rigging and avert bloody electoral contest, infliction of poverty on Nigerians as a result of incompetence and prompt leadership action. “The sudden rise in Boko Haram activities, armed robbery and bloody violence across Nigeria, refusal to sign Petroleum Industry Governance Bill (PIGB) which would have raised revenue for Nigerians and protected the Niger Delta people and their environment, refusal to attend the burial of the heroic Nigerian soldiers killed in Metele Borno State on the same day Service Chiefs left their duty post and were attending his campaign flag off in Aso Rock, illegal detention of opposition and innocent citizens and clampdown on human rights, freedom of speech and associations especially right to peaceful protest or opinion, refusal to obey Court orders and Obstruction of Justice, inability to rescue Leah Shuaibu, the only Christian girl still in the hands of the Boko Haram after others were released and remaining Chibok girls, politicisation of the Nigerian Police and use of Inspector General of Police for framing opposition leaders, filing of frivolous charges and biased usage of the Police for intimidation and rigging of election, illegal Secret detention of Activist Deji Adeyanju in the Underground police cell after he was released by the Court, refusal to strengthen the fight against corruption by supporting the corruption institution and appointing a substantive chairman after the present illegal occupant Magu failed parliamentary screening 3 times, politicisation of the agency and refusal to order investigation of many criminal and corruption acts against the friends, officers and relatives of the regime, etc,”. He alleged that after a careful review of the pattern of the past three years budget including the snippets from the 2019 budget, it will not make any impact in the economy. “We can categorically tell Nigerians that the document is once again an empty proposal that lacks the capacity to pull Nigeria out of the economic woes the previous Buhari budget landed it and hence caption it a budget for consolidation of incompetence, waste and poverty and an official paper for the rampaging looters to complete their four years looting cycle.” Charging the lawmakers to carry out the walk out, the CUPP spokesman added that the “only symbol of democracy and peoples representation is the institution of the parliament and when modern democracies are facing extinction, the fearless parliament led by the energy and courage of pure democrats always comes to the rescue, hence the need for patriotic opposition lawmakers to use the 2019 budget presentation to stand with Nigerian people by acting in any of these manners, standup and walk out holding the green-white-green flags once the president arrives, standup and walk out midway into his speech or boycott the event at a press conference at NASS minutes before the president arrives.” Tunde Opalana, Abuja