Says 2019 election is national referendum against hunger, poverty, others
By Ayo Fadimu
The candidate of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the 2019 presidential election Alhaji Atiku Abubakar has described the the tradermoni and school feeding programmeof President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration as fraud and big scam. Atiku, who spoke with Nigerian NewsDirect through his spokesman Kassim Afegbua explained that monitoring the beneficiaries of such money is very difficult and prone to abuse and scam “if you have recovered $322 million Abacha loot, the expectation will be that- under a transparent government that they claim to be- we have N117 billion Abacha loot with us based on the new exchange rate.
This is how we want to implement it. The moment you say you are doing TraderMoni, monitoring becomes a problem; beneficiaries become a problem; because my community, Okpella, is made up of over one hundred and ten thousand persons. I go home regularly and I hold meetings and I keep asking our women and traders, who among them has benefitted from TraderMoni – not a single person. Even last week, I went home, I still asked the question- none of them. I have a group that I coordinate called Our Mumu Don Do – a group in the local level and I keep asking them. None of them has indicated to be a beneficiary of TraderMoni. Now, if they have not indicated and they have not shown evidence that they are the beneficiaries of this TraderMoni, how would you want me to believe that TraderMoni model is a resource to take out the rural traders from poverty? He asked
He went further, “In Osun State, N10,000 was supposed to be given and some people came out to say N8,000 got to them, because there is a middleman who will be collecting N2,000” he asked.
The former Vice President also accused the government of dishing out conflicting figures about the TraderMoni, which is a clear evidence of fraud. He said, ”Secondly, they will give you different figures. Festus Keyamo, will give you a different figure, Laolu Akande; the spokesman to the vice president, will give you a different figure, the vice president will give you a different figure. That means, it is subject to abuse because monitoring has become a problem. They can’t track it. They don’t know how it is. To that extent, they are just running their business to their whims and caprices”
He insisted that the programme is simply for 2019 election and vote buying, ”We have seen the sample of that form. There is provision for PVC number in it. It is all about party affiliation, if not why is it shrouded in secrecy if they don’t have anything to hide? He asked.
On the school feeding programme, he described it as a very huge scam and challenged anybody on the side of the government to tell him why it is not.
“They are doing school feeding programme, my brother visit Nigerian schools, you will see glorified poultry and piggery as schools where people are expected to take lessons. Now, when you go to those schools, you don’t monitor the quality of food being served these children. The man who is coming to serve, he has middlemen- “my money per head na N2.00 oh”. By the time you multiply it, the man is making good money. The person who serves does not put quality at play, so that he/she can satisfy those who made him or her to get that contract.” He pointed out.
Afegbua who served in the government of the incumbent APC National chairman, Adams Oshiomhole while he was Edo State governor advised the Federal Government to copy the Edo State model.
“I served in Edo State and I will give a typical example. What we did was to rebuild Edo schools. Do you know what happened? Enrollment increased from 33,000 to 67,000. And when we were asking the children question why is it so? They said,” the classroom (well ventilated classroom- you have fans , tiles, chairs) is better than our home.” These are innocent children. Children suffering from poverty and living in a face me I slap you kind of house, will find the classroom environment more attractive. That doubles or triples the intakes”.
Afegbua described the 2019 elections as a huge national referendum against hunger, against poverty, against deprivations, against malnutrition”
He insisted that the maladministration of Buhari-led APC government has turned all Nigerians to IDPs in search of relief materials. “We are the confirmed candidates of Internally Displaced Persons. We are IDPs- all of us. All of us are IDPs. Don’t joke about it. Go to the rural areas and see what I am talking about. We are all IDPs looking for relief materials”.
