FG’s plan to borrow $30 bn signifies doom fo Nigeria -Fayose

Ekiti State Governor, Mr. Ayo Fayose on Tuesday tongue lashed President Muhammadu Buhari over the 2017 budget presented two weeks ago, saying the Federal Government’s plan to borrow $30b to finance the budget, signals doom for Nigeria’s economy.

Fayose  who spoke at the government office in Ado-Ekiti, state capital, during the distribution of 7000 eye-glasses to indigent Ekiti people with bad eye-sight, argued that a recent confession by the FG that 2016 budget of over N6 trillion, had performed at only about 40 percent was enough to rubbish the proposed plan.

According to him” If we borrow this much to finance 2017 budget, it means we will continue to borrow even till 2019 and the rate at which this government is borrowing money, I hope they will not plunge Nigeria into eternal debt, enslavement and misery. This has been the fear of many who are against borrowing of $30 billion loan. And they will continue to borrow without attempting to concretely tackle the dwindling rate of our currency.

“What the federal government is doing is in the wrong direction. You see, one sad thing is that once the head is right, the whole body would not be right. The FG under President Buhari does not have what it takes to lead this country economically and beyond. They themselves confirmed that the 2016 budget performed at about 40 percent or below. So that is to tell you that they lack the vision, and don’t know what they are doing and are only deceiving Nigerians.”

However speaking about the inspiration behind the distribution of the eye-glasses, Fayose said the scheme was meant to benefit poor and visually impaired people who cannot afford eye-glasses and whose bad eye-sight has affected their performance at work or handiwork.

“We have done this before and these are the benefits that can get to the common people. The benefits is for those with impaired sight for a long time and couldn’t get solution. We have taken this to them tested them and diagonised the recommended glasses. And today we are giving the glasses to them.

“You cannot imagine that people can wake up without a N100 in their pockets, not to talk of affording a eyeglass of N7000. The project is targeted at 7000 people and is costing government about N59 million. This project continues and we’ve already included it in next year budget.led government”

The eye-glasses programme had been carried out by the management of the Ekiti State University Teaching Hospital (EKSUTH), The representative of the hospital, Mrs. Teniloa Oso, who spoke about the efforts of the her team, said: ” the Oju Ayo programme is a form of poverty alleviation programme directed at the poorly poor in our communities who out of poor vision and near blindness has lost all means of survival resulting into poverty and its associated challenges.