The Labour Party (LP) has said the proposed N57.6 million budgeted by the House of Representatives, to gift members with utility vehicles, is a waste of public resources.
The party, however, wants its elected members in the 10th National Assembly, to uphold its ideology of social justice and equal opportunity for the Nigerian people.
LP National Chairman Julius Abure, in a statement on Tuesday, said Nigerians will hold them responsible if they fail to live above board or give proper account of the electoral investment reposed in them.
“Nigerians are fed up with the status quo, and they crave for a different leadership that must factor in the interest of the suffering masses. The poor must be allowed to breathe again in this country,” Abure told the LP members.
He condemned the move to spend a whopping sum of N57.6 billion to buy vehicles for the legislators at a time government claims it cannot afford to increase the minimum wage of N30,000 monthly to workers.
“The Labour Party is indeed shocked, saddened and disappointed at the level of insensitivity being displayed by the executive and the legislative arms of the President Bola Tinubu-led All Progressives Congress administration.
“It is saddening that with deepening poverty among Nigerians, the administration has decided to increase its appetite for a life of opulence to mock hardworking but underprivileged Nigerians,” he added.
Abure noted that the APC-led Federal Government appointed 48 ministers, “with each of them given three luxurious four-wheel drive vehicles on the first day in office, paid for and fueled by taxpayers.
“This is notwithstanding hundreds of presidential and ministerial aides, as well as numerous aides, which are being funded by the government.”
The National Chairman regretted that most families could not afford two square meals a day, while the government continued to go around the world seeking for loans.
He wondered why the government could spend so much amount of money to import vehicles from other countries instead of patronising local vehicle manufacturing companies, such as Innoson Motors in Anambra, and Peugeot Automobiles in Kaduna, so as to save foreign exchange and boost the local economy.
“When our presidential candidate, Mr Peter Obi, said we in the Labour Party want to move the economy from consumption to production, this is what we mean – Nigeria first!
“We implore this government to, in the interest of our dear nation, retrace its step and give priority to revamping the economy instead of its current obsession with luxury living,” Abure advised.