The Labour Party (LP) has faulted President Muhammadu Buhari’s decision to release over N700 billion as bailout to state governors, saying he has set a proportional but different level of bad precedent.
National Chairman of LP, Alhaji Abdukadir Abdulsalam, who stated this in Abuja on Wednesday, said that while his party agrees that many workers would get parts of the backlog of their salaries and the society would be good for it, the errors of the bailout far outweigh its benefits.
“Where did the President get this bailout of over N700 bn of Nigerians without appropriation, or they just collect money and give out just like that. Though its good that the workers will get their salaries, but it has created a bad precedent. Withdrawing such quantum money without appropriation is tantamount to illegality and is not following the rule of law.
“Buhari came with the concept of change, but it seems he has not learnt from the mistakes of previous administrations, because what is happening now was what happened to former President Olusegun Obasanjo, when the governors prevailed on him to bastardize the local government system, when local government funds were diverted to personal use of the governors then”, Abdulsalam said.
The LP chairman recalled that when former President Goodluck Jonathan came onboard, the governors also deceived him to carry out certain policies and projects, but at the end they disappointed him, adding that President Buhari has fallen into their trap.
