President Buhari has vowed to severely punish all those involved in the ‘padding’ of the 2016 National Budget. According to a statement by presidential media aide, Femi Adesina, Buhari said this while addressing the Nigerian Community in Saudi Arabia yesterday February 23rd.
“The culprits will not go unpunished. I have been a military governor, petroleum minister, military Head of State and headed the Petroleum Trust Fund.
Never had I heard the words “budget padding”. Our Minister of Budget and National Planning did a great job with his team. The Minister became almost half his size during the time, working night and day to get the budget ready, only for some people to pad it. What he gave us was not what was finally being debated. It is very embarrassing and disappointing. We will not allow those who did it to go unpunished,” he vowed.He reaffirmed his administrations zero tolerance for corruption
“We have zero tolerance for corruption and other unethical practices. We will deal decisively with anybody found wanting,” he promised members of the Nigerian community. He restated his administrations commitment to end Boko Haram “Our armed forces have done a great job of dealing decisively with Boko Haram. We are collaborating with our neighbors in the operations of the Multinational Joint Task Force to handle security threats in the sub-region and we have significantly destroyed the capacity of the insurgents,”.