Shocker! Yar’Adua turns down financial request from NASS, PDP; We did not make any request - Party

Idowu Samuel, Abuja - 23.09.2007

President Umaru Yar’Adua is set to beat the record of former President Olusegun Obasanjo as a “stingy leader”, following the high rate at which he has been turning down requests for special palliatives and financial assistance from government officials and individuals.

Yar’Adua, described as an extremely frugal politician, reportedly demonstrated the attribute recently when he turned down a request for palliative for the Moslem members of the National Assembly, who would soon be celebrating Ed-el- fitri which usually marks the end of the Holy month of Ramadan.

The proposal, submitted before the President by a former member of the Senate, was meant to open an avenue for good relationship between the executive and the legislative arms of government.

An insider in the Presidential Villa told Sunday Tribune that the request for palliative for the Moslem members of the National Assembly ran into several millions of naira.

Yar’Adua was said to have considered the request very strange, coming at a time his government was struggling to find its feet in the battle to turn the country’s economy around, and, therefore, dismissed the request made by the Senator, who is from the South-South, with a wave of the hand.

In a similar vein, the president was said to have turned down a request for monthly imprest for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). Some top shots of the party were said to have approached the president during the week to remind him of the financial obligation of his government to the party, having waited endlessly since May for government’s response.

The PDP chieftains, according to sources, took the matter up with President Yar’Adua on the conviction that the past government had a way of assisting the party by several means, most especially at crucial times.

The PDP has scheduled its congresses and national convention for the months of November and December this year, to elect new officers for available posts from the ward level to the national.

President Yar’Adua was said to have dissuaded party members on the issue, while also urging them to appreciate the concern of his government in tackling daunting economic crisis in the country.

The President, it was learnt, told his visitors that all he preferred to do was concentrate on feeding the poor by opening up avenues for employment generation rather than spending money on just any request.

The new National Publicity Secretary of the PDP could not be reached immediately, but her deputy, Mr. Bayo Alao, dismissed the report, stating that he was not aware of a visit by any PDP top shot to solicit financial support for the party in the presidential villa.