A former governorship candidate, Olajide Awosedo, has called on the Executive and Legislature not to allow the current controversy over the allegations of budget padding distract them from their main focus of finding lasting solutions to the economic problems ravaging the country .
Awosedo, who contested on the platform of the Labour Party in the 2011 governorship election in Ogun State, described the budget padding controversy as a distraction.
He urged the Federal Government to fine-tune its strategies on how to deliver the country from the current economic recession.
The politician spoke shortly after the presentation of an award to former president Olusegun Obasanjo by the African Pride Initiative, in collaboration with the Ogun State Ministry of Culture and Tourism at the Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library, in Abeokuta.
Awosedo, who is now a member of the All Progressives Congress in the state, admonished the FG to over look the issue of budget padding and concentrate on how to move the country forward.
The former governorship candidate stated that the issue of budget padding wouldn’t have been on the front burner if the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara and former Chairman, House Committee on Appropriation, Abdulmunin Jibrin, had not been at loggerheads.
Awosedo, therefore, urged the FG to shun the budget padding distraction and move on.
He said, “Honestly, this is a distraction. If anybody is found guilty, that is not what is important, we have more important things to address in Nigeria than budget padding. We should just face the economy, face what is happening and let us move on.
“It is distracting, we should face the problem in the country. If the Executive presented the budget to the legislature and the legislature went through it, they went back to the Executive and the Executive didn’t see any padding, didn’t see what was wrong with the figures, and the president signed it into law. After so much , all of a sudden somebody is saying this is padding. Honestly, this is distraction. We should just face the economy, face what is happening in the country and let us move on,” he added.
