Labour Party presidential candidate Peter Obi criticized the N2.17 trillion 2023 supplementary budget passed by President Bola Tinubu.

Obi made his views known on Wednesday in a series of tweets on this verified X account, titled ‘Observations on the Supplementary Budget.’

He stated, “A supplementary budget is a budget made for very important national welfare needs of the people which were not captured originally in the main budget, or do not have adequate funding.”

According to Obi, some items in the current budget may not have taken into consideration the needs of a new administration, a supplementary budget this late in the financial year should primarily address urgent items of national welfare.

“Sadly, the most pressing national needs and emergencies have not featured in the supplementary budget that was just announced by the government.”

“For example, the United Nations and World Food Programme have recently alerted that up to 6.5 million Nigerians will go hungry next year. This number is largely from among citizens in Sokoto, Adamawa, Borno, Yobe, and Zamfara States.”

Obi emphasized that a caring government should have made provisions for such urgent situations in the supplementary budget to mitigate the impending catastrophe.

“No item of urgent social welfare has yet featured in the supplementary budget being orchestrated by this government.”

“Instead, the items being made to dominate public discourse on the budget include a mysterious Presidential Yacht, Presidential Jets, the furnishing of already lavishly furnished presidential quarters and offices, fleets of luxury SUVs, etc,” he stated.

He argued that such allocations portray a government that is “totally uncaring and insensitive to the suffering of the majority, and indifferent to the mood of the nation.”

Furthermore, Obi questioned the government’s fiscal responsibility, stating, “The government’s overall attitude does not indicate that it is aware that the country is in a huge crisis, nor is the government in tune with the plight of the generality of our people.”

President Bola Tinubu has just approved the N2.17 trillion 2023 supplemental budget. The National Assembly has adopted it into law, enabling the federal government to implement the distribution of funds specified in the budget to each level of government.