Tinubu’s Wife Attacks 2016 Budget

Mrs Remi Tinubu, the wife of the National Leader of the All Progressive Congress (APC), Bola Tinubu, has accused President Buhari of side-lining women in the 2016 Budget proposal that he presented to the National Assembly.She said women who were also instrumental in winning the election, are being marginalised.Mrs Remi Tinubu, who is also a Senator representing Lagos Central in the Senate, spoke  while making her contribution to the debate on the 2016 Budget on the floor of the Senate.She said, “In its manifesto, the APC mentioned the need for empowerment programmes for Nigerian women. “Such comprehensive empowerment requires funding, which should be included in the budget for implementation. Going through the budget for the federal ministry of women’s affairs, I discovered that the total allocation to the women’s ministry is so meagre and I think it would be the least allocation allotted to a ministry. “And when we look at the functions of this ministry, the ministry is divided into two divisions, human resources and capacity building, economic services and women cooperative, but when we look at the first division, which is a human resources and capacity building, they are supposed to promote education, development of women in the civil, political, socio-cultural and economic sectors. “All those that I have also mentioned require capital. Looking at this budget of less than N4bn, they have capital with almost N3bn. So, when you look at it, what is left? “I am just laying this case on behalf of the Nigerian women. This is not going well”¦ It’s as if we were used during the campaign, and we said this is a government of change. The change mantra is supposed to change things across the board. “What they have allotted to the Nigerian women is not encouraging. When we talk about change, it doesn’t mean we are going to dodge and support what is not working. “This is the best way to start. So that the women would not just be used for campaign and several promises made to them. On behalf of the Nigerian woman, I am making their case today that this budget is not saying anything and not making any promises, so when it gets to the committee level, they should have a way of trying to amend this budget so that it would meet all the needs that the Nigerian women and they would not incur the wrath of the Nigerian woman.”