Why Buhari Was ‘Booed’ At Budget Presentation – PDP Lawmaker.

A member of the House of Representatives and one of the
spokespersons of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Presidential
Campaign Council, Nnena Ukeje, has given some insight into why
President Muhammadu Buhari was ‘booed’ during the presentation of
the 2019 budget on Wednesday.

According to her, instead of addressing the National Assembly as
the President of the country, President Buhari’s mannerisms rather
appeared as though he was merely speaking as the flagbearer for the
All Progressives Congress (APC).

She said this when she made an appearance on Channels
Television’s Politics Today on Monday.

According to her, with an already heated polity, the Presidency
ought to have taken a cue from former President Goodluck Jonathan,
who during his time, delegated the assignment of presenting the
budget to a “less contentious character”.

She explained, “When Mr President walked into the hallowed
chambers (I’ve watched Mr President campaign a lot of the time) and
I find that as he balls his fist, there’s this frenzied response
from his supporters.

“As Mr President walked into the House of Representatives on
that day to present the policy statement of the country for the
next year, Mr President clenched his fist and raised his hand. From
that moment, in the eyes of some of my colleagues, he transcended
from the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to the APC
flagbearer and of course, the situation got very heated.

“In a country that is as divided as Nigeria, the polity is so
heated up, we saw the same things happen in 2015 when President
Goodluck Ebele Jonathan was supposed to come and present his
budget.

“You will recall that at that time, we had a very active
opposition, almost militant opposition and they had said they were
not going to allow President Goodluck Jonathan, come into the
National Assembly to deliver the budget.

“What we did in the PDP at the time was engage with the
president and say that it was a potentially violent environment and
the APC opposition had said they would do everything to stop him
from presenting the budget.

“Now, what we did was go back and look into the constitution and
the fact that even though it had become customary for Mr President
to deliver the budget, the President was still allowed to delegate
his duties.

“Under advisement, the president decided at the time to look for
a less contentious character and he decided to ask the Minister of
Economy at the time, Okonjo Iweala to come before the National
Assembly and deliver the budget”.

Speaking of the chances of the PDP, winning the presidential
election after its previous 16-year-rule, Ukeje said she was
confident that the party stood a better chance.

According to her, “APC has run out of ideas and the PDP comes
with fresh new ideas that will give the country hope in the
direction that we must go”.

When asked “should Nigerians trust your party”, she stated,
“There was a referendum on the PDP and that referendum was in
2015.

“In 2015 Nigerians voted overwhelmingly to remove the PDP from
government and that is the beautiful thing about democracy.

“Democracy is self-correcting and the PDP came out and then
everybody said we will vote for the APC because we were tired of
the PDP and it was legitimate.

“Nigerians went out and voted the APC. Now that referendum is
done.

“This is three years down the line and there’s a new referendum
and the questions remain, do you sleep better at night, do you feel
safer in Nigeria, is your life better today, are you hungrier, is
there better healthcare, can you say to your children, that there
is hope?

“If they say that a government is as good as its people, I think
it is time for the Nigerian people to ask themselves one question,
is my life better today than it was four years ago?”

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