Leaders of the Action Congress of Nigeria have said that the country is suffocating under corruption, which is being perpetrated by the government.
The leaders of the party, at a news conference in Abuja today, said that the revenue leakage from the Federation Account and that of the downstream oil sector was enough evidence that there is rot in the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation, the major source of the country’s revenue.
The conference was addressed by the party’s National Secretary, Alhaji Lawan Shuaibu.
Present at the news conference also were Governor Babatunde Raji Fashola of Lagos State and all the senators elected on the party’s platform.
The party said: “The recent KPMG audit report on NNPC that shows about N800B revenue leakage from the Federation Account and another revenue leakage of N1.2Trillion from the downstream operation symbolizes the rot in that organization.
“One looks at this year’s budget to discover the ridiculous amounts allocated beverages and snacks, computers and scanners put at five to ten times their market prices, worst still huge amounts allocated simply as welfare packages and unbelievable sums for vaguely defined budget lines.
“When the list of some of the beneficiaries of the so-called subsidy started coming out they were those who contributed heavily to the 2011 Presidential campaign, establishing the link between “subsidy” and Jonathan’s election funding.
“The allocation of nearly a trillion Naira for national security, several times more than the meager allocation for the power sector, is all in the same spirit.
“What we are witnessing is not just the depth of the rot but that corruption has reached a suffocating level that the country and its people cannot breathe until we deal with it.
“It has to be dealt with at this juncture and at this time or the nation simply asphyxiates.”
The party said in a situation where the government in power fails to carry out its responsibilities, it behoves on the opposition to ginger the government into action.
It said for the government to therefore be blaming opposition parties for reminding it of its responsibilities amounts to not wanting to hear the truth.
The party therefore advised Jonathan to take steps to reduce the expenditure of the government on overheads as signified by unwieldy number of ministries, parastatals and aides, the budget for security to be cut, that of feeding for the President and his deputy and other such wasteful spending like having nine aircraft in the presidential fleet.
The full text of the press conference is in the Politics Section of The Eagle Online at www.theeagleonline.com.ng.