Former Vice President and presidential aspirant of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, has chided President Goodluck Jonathan for being too ashamed to defend his 2011 budget.

Atiku Campaign Organisation in Abuja yesterday said the budget of a nation is too serious a matter to defend through anonymous persons.

Atiku was reacting to media reports that an anonymous presidency source had questioned the rationale behind his widely-published critique of the Budget 2011 proposal.
It is inconceivable that a government that presented a budget that will determine the lives of 150 million Nigerians cannot rise in defence of such budget.

It is reprehensible that despite the army of officials in government, there is no single volunteer who can take the risk of being identified with the wishy-washy collection they call the Budget 2011 proposal.

A budget is a very serious instrument that guides the conduct of government business. Its formulation is supposed to be guided by the philosophy and the vision of the government. It is the appropriation of this vision with the expectations and needs of the people that a budget is said to be well-thought out. If the Budget 2011 proposal is well-thought out, everybody in government will not be too ashamed to put a face to its defence.

The conduct of government by anonymity is becoming the defining character of this administration. When the presidency is accused of working on the 2011 elections with a rigging manual, the initial response of government is through this now notorious anonymous presidency sources.

How can an anonymous source be the one defending government against serious allegations of incompetence and malfeasance, the statement queried.

Is it that no one is so persuaded by the conduct of government that it can put his/her face in its defence, the statement further queried.Atiku restated his earlier position that the Budget 2011 proposal, which guiding policy is predicated on consumption is a recipe for economic disaster.

He noted that the emphasis on consumption is becoming understandable with daily revelations of the staggering daily allocations for food consumption in the presidency.
We hope our officials are not being fed too much food to think properly on how to govern the country effectively, he said.

The former Vice President and restated his alert that Atiku the nation's economy is on a free fall and that the President Jonathan;s Budget 2011 can only worsen the parlous state of the economy.
He warned that the budget which is predicated on consumption without corresponding investments in critical infrastructure is a recipe for economic disaster.

At a time of unprecedented oil boom, you have presented Nigeria with a budget of consumption for consumption; a budget of debt accumulation to imperil the future; a budget that is rich in rhetoric and pedestrian initiatives but lacking in any bold step to lay the foundation for Nigeria's next 50 years or even 20 years, Atiku had said in a letter to President Jonathan.

Cant he realise he is being ignored?