Former presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obi, has decried financial recklessness in President Tinubu’s administration as homelessness ravages Nigerians.
Obi said while the federal government awards N15 billion for construction of residency for Vice President, Kashim Shettima and N30 billion for renovation of National Assembly Complex Nigerians are living on streets and shanties ravaged by poverty.
The former governor of Anambra State argued that a country with the highest number of homeless citizens in the world statistics should not allocate N45 billion for Shettima’s residency and NASS complex renovation.
Obi said the 2024 budget statistics showed the federal government not structured to address the challenges of the poor citizens.
Gregory said, ‘In continuation of my concern for the budgetary allocations as it relates to the poor, I like to present the following for Nigerians to note; Budget for the construction of a new residence for the Vice President – N15 billion. Budget for the renovation of National Assembly Complex – N30 billion.
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Comparing the homeless statistics of Nigerians with other populated countries, he added, “The country with the highest number of homeless people – is Nigeria, with 25 million homeless people, higher than the total number of homeless people in India and China whose combined populations are over 12 times ours, and also higher than two and half the homeless population of Bangladesh and Philippines combined.”
The former presidential candidate advised the federal government to revisit the provision in the budget to address the needs of poor Nigerians. He added that Egypt has shown Nigeria leaders what could be done by houses for low income earning households.
“We can follow the footsteps of Egypt who have below 50% of the number of our homeless people, but is tackling it by building 1.4 million low-cost housing units in 9 years, and is still doing more,” Obi added.
