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Tag: 2017 budget

  • Hope rises for early passage of N7.30tr 2017 budget

    •Fed Govt’s MTEF ready for approval soon

    There is hope of a smoother and early passage of the N7.30 trillion 2017 budget. A senior Senate official was quoted as saying that the Federal Government of Nigeria’s 2017 to 2019 Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) could be ready for approval and passage soon.
    Report from FBN Capital, an investmóent and research arm of FBN Holdings, said the approval will ginger the Senate to quickly consider passing the budget.
    “This would be the fastest budget process for several years, bringing forward capital releases and therefore the FGN’s contribution to lifting the economy out of recession. The National Assembly supports the expansionary fiscal stance but is capable of delaying tactics,” it said.
    Federal Minister of Budget and National Planning, Udo Udoma, had said the FGN’s proposal for 2017 of aggregate expenditure of N7.30 trillion was not expansionary relative to the figure of N6.06 trillion in the 2016 budget, adjustment for the exchange rate is made.
    The research firm said it will, however be expansionary when N2.42 trillion in first half 2016 and make allowances for a pick-up in disbursements once the budget had been finally approved and signed off in May.
    “We support the FGN’s fiscal stance since monetary policy was unable to deliver due to the textbook focus on inflation and weak transmission mechanisms. The FGN has shifted its average exchange-rate assumption for 2017 from N290 to N305 per dollar in line with the interbank market. We may well doubt that this will prove the year’s average. That said, we cannot expect the FGN to assume a weaker rate than today’s since it does not have a formal objective and would be foolish to “show its hand” to the market,” it said.
    It said within the financing of the projected N2.36 trillion deficit, the FGN is now to borrow N1.25 trillion and N1.07 trillion respectively from domestic and external sources rather than the earlier projections of N1.07 trillion and N1.34 trillion
    This is inconsistent with the Debt Management Office’s medium term strategy of borrowing more externally than domestically in pursuit of a 40/60 mix in the FGN’s debt obligations. “The yield on the July ’23 Eurobond of 6.9 per cent compares favourably with more than 16 per cent on a FGN naira bond of similar tenor. The comparison is better still when we note that most external financing is contracted on concessionary terms at +/-2.0 per cent,” the report said.
    “However, the changes to the borrowing projections are realistic, given the difficulties the FGN has experienced securing external finance for its 2016 budget. These difficulties with the World Bank and the African Development Bank would be greatly diminished if the FGN accepted IMF loans. Such a step remains off the agenda, however,” it added.

  • 2017 Budget: Dogara accepts Buhari’s conditions for assent

    The House of Representatives on Tuesday accepted to comply with the conditions given by President Muhammadu Buhari that details of the 2017 budget be debated on the floor and passed before he can sign the budget into law.

    The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, in his welcome speech on the resumption of members from Christmas/ New year recess, said the House “must brace up and work assiduously and conscientiously to give Nigerians a budget that will not only lift us out of recession but kick start the needed journey into Nigeria’s prosperity.”

    “We pledge to reform the budget process. To this end therefore, we would ensure that the procedure and process of consideration and passage of the 2017 budget is transparent, inclusive and professionally handled. The details of the budget should be debated and passed in plenary to avoid those needless pitfalls that normally characterize the budget process.”

    It would be recalled that the Special Assistant to the President on National Assembly Matters, Senate, Ita Enang, at an event in September last year, said President Buhari might not assent to appropriation bills passed by the National Assembly except details of the budget was passed on the floor of both chambers of the National Assembly and also captured in the votes and proceedings of that day.

    Dogara said the economy must be central focus of the House in 2017 and that the 2017 budget remains the major tool to rejig the economy.

    “Measures to exit Nigeria out of recession must be the critical aspect of our legislative activities.”

    “This is in addition to other fiscal and monetary policies. The recent fiscal measures including import prohibition of certain items and the increase or decrease of tariff on some items should receive appropriate legislative scrutiny to ensure that the economy and the interests of our people are protected. We must ensure that we take no prisoners in accomplishing this task,” the speaker added.

     

  • Ambode signs 2017 budget

    Lagos State Governor, Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode, on Monday signed the N812.998 billion 2017 budget into law.

    Ambode, who signed the budget at the Lagos House, Ikeja, expressed optimism that the country economy country will bounce back this year to bring the nation out of recession.

    The newly signed budget represents N150.41bn increase from N662.588bn for 2016. The budget capital expenditure is pegged at N507.816bn while the recurrent expenditure is N305.182bn.

    Ambode said the 2017 budget will consolidate on the modest milestones recorded in 2016, adding that focus will be on key areas of infrastructure, economic, social/ security and sustainable environment.

    The governor, “We are optimistic on the recovery of our national economy this year. We are encouraged by the budget performance of last year (2016) which stood at 78 per cent.

    “Our government is committed to prudent financial management and equitable allocation of resources for the general good and will ensure proper fiscal discipline in the implementation of this appropriation law.”

    He appealed to residents’ cooperation through prompt tax payment in order to ensure successful implementation of the budget.

    “We encourage all tax payers to continue in this spirit and also take advantage of available multi-pay channels in fulfilling their civic obligations. Do not pay to touts or illegal channels. Make sure your tax payments count.”

     

  • National Assembly and 2017 budget process

    National Assembly and 2017 budget process

    THE National Assembly will come alive on Tuesday. Members of the two chambers will once again take their seats as they resume for legislative business after the Christmas and New Year recess.

     One major task before the lawmakers will be the annual ritual of working to pass the 2017 Appropriation Bill.

     President Muhammadu Buhari presented the Appropriation Bill to a joint session of the Senate and House of Representatives on December 14, 2016, some clear two months behind schedule.

     The 2017 to 2019 Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) and Fiscal Strategy Paper (FSP) upon which the 2017 budget was predicated, is still hanging in the Senate, practically begging to be passed.

     Senate Leader, Senator Mohammed Ali Ndume, once described the MTEF and FSP as “empty and unrealistic,” prompting the Senate to return the fiscal document to the Presidency to rework.

     The document was returned to the National Assembly a day before the presentation of the budget by Budget and National Planning Minister, Senator Udoma Udo Udoma, with little or no adjustments.

     Questions were asked, eyebrows raised by stakeholders over the late submission of the vital budget document. The silence of the Presidency that was required to do the needful was deafening.

     The Senate dismissed insinuations that it ought to have adopted and passed the MTEF and FSP before receiving the budget from Mr. President. Deputy Senate Leader, Senator Bala Ibn Na’Allah, would have none of that. Na’Alla explained that the Fiscal Responsibility Act did not say the budget should not be received without the passage of the MTEF and FSP.

     The Act, Na’Allah enthused, stipulated that the budget should not be passed without the passage of the MTEF and FSP. ‘Escapesionist’ permutation, you may say. Perhaps Na’Allah forgot that the details of the MTEF and FSP as passed by the parliament are meant to guide the executive in the formulation of the budget.

     Going forward, ministries, departments and agencies of government will, as usual, take their turns at budget defence sessions created essentially for lawmakers to rob minds with heads of MDAs on the budget estimates and sectoral allocations.

     Senate President, Abubakar Bukola Saraki, has assured that the Senate will work to fast track the consideration and passage of the budget to pave the way for its early implementation.

     Reassuring as Saraki’s assurance on early passage of the budget may be, the Senate, nay the National Assembly, should work to ensure that the needless controversy of ‘padding and missing’ that trailed the 2016 budget do not rise.

     Though the unsavory and nasty stories told about the 2016 Budget persisted, steps should be taken to work on the 2017 Budget without Executive-Legislature rancour.

     Standing committees empowered to scrutinize and vet the budget estimates should therefore be up and doing. Necessary questions should also be asked about the level of implementation of the 2016 Budget.

     Asking penetrating questions about the implementation of the 2016 Budget, a huge chunk of it having been vired to other uses, should be the starting point for the consideration of the 2017 Budget.

     The era of ‘carry go’ and ‘rob my back, I rob your back’ arrangee kind of budget defence should be a thing of the past. A budget may appear good on paper, its implementation may be a different matter entirely. Of what use is a budget that will be poorly implemented or one implemented at the whim and caprice of the executive?

    Budget defence, no matter the MDA involved, should also be open. Closed door budget defence, in the name of so-called ‘security reason,’ has been observed to be avenue for budget padding and unwholesome insertions.

     It is also note worthy that Saraki confirmed in his speech during the budget presentation that the 2017 budget process benefitted from greater cooperation and consultations between the National Assembly and the Executive.

    The Senate President was also quick to add that the “National Assembly recognises however that the problem with our budget and budgeting process goes far deeper than the relative progress we have made. This is why in August 2016, I inaugurated a joint Executive/Legislative Committee and a technical committee to review our budget systems and identify ways we can make them more transparent, more participatory, more result-oriented and therefore more effective.

     Saraki said the National Assembly has already worked to bring the key highlights of the report of the budget process review committee into effect within the 2016 framework, including: pre-budget consultation and engagement; greater information sharing and recording; public hearing on the budget bill; drafting of an organic budget bill; and amendment of the Public Procurement Act.

    Perhaps working to engender a transparent, participatory, result-oriented and effective budget process will be the best thing that would happen to the country. The economy, especially infrastructure development, will no doubt, benefit from such development.

     The Organic Budget Law, Saraki explained, will provide the legal framework for regulating the procedures that budget preparation, approval, implementation and even accounting must follow.

    It will, according to the Senate President, bring the budget and national planning regime within a clearly defined framework, thereby ensuring greater predictability, transparency and efficiency.

     The civil society was not left out in the effort to open up the country’s budget process. Saraki said when the National Assembly introduced the civil society public hearing on the budget initiative, the idea was to open up the budgeting space by incorporating the civil society into the budget process, essentially to ensure greater transparency and accountability.

    Saraki thereafter launched into the essence and spirit of the budget. For him, the overarching purpose of a budget is essentially to ease the economic pressure on the people in general and the poor most especially.

    “The 2017 budget assumes even a greater significance, particularly in this time of recession. The feedback we get from visits to our various constituencies is that there is hardship in the land. We can see it and we can feel it. This situation therefore commands all of us as government to a greater sense of urgency. We cannot work magic, but we must continue to work the clock.

    “Our people must see that the singular pre-occupation of government is the search for solution to the current economic hardship; and the commitment to ease their burden. They don’t want to know what political parties we belong, what language we speak or how we worship God. They have trusted their fates into our hands, and they need us now more than ever, to justify the trust that they have reposed on us. The people of Nigeria will pardon us if we do some things wrong. But they will not forgive us if we do nothing. The two chambers have taken a position whatever may be our differences, or opinions on issues of the economy we will all work with one common purpose for this reason,” Saraki said.

    On the need to be bold and pragmatic to drive local production and promote made-in Nigeria goods, Saraki reiterated that the only way the country can cut down on its foreign exchange needs, create jobs and stimulate entrepreneurship is to promote local manufacturing and investments.

    He said the necessity to promote local manufacturing and investments informed the decision of the National Assembly to inject the made-in-Nigeria amendment into the Public Procurement Act.

    Saraki delivered what many considered the clincher when he declared that what President Buhari presented to the joint session remained a mere proposal which the National Assembly is entitled to shape into form.

     “Mr. President, though we are confident that we are receiving from you a very well-articulated budget proposal, it is worthy to point out that the best produced budget from the executive at all times still remains a proposal according to our constitution which the National Assembly will work assiduously on.

    “On behalf of the National Assembly, we commit to work on the 2017 budget, conscious of the responsibility that the current economic situation imposes on us and driven by the urgency to alleviate the suffering of our people and also bearing in mind your aspiration and vision for our people. We assure you Mr. President and all Nigerians that not even a single minute would be wasted on our side in the course of getting this budget approved,” Saraki declared.

    As the National Assembly reconvenes and begins the consideration of details of the budget, the days ahead will unveil the true colour of the 2017 Budget.

  • Is Buhari’s 2017 budget proposal any different?

    Is Buhari’s 2017 budget proposal any different?

    In the last few weeks, President Muhammadu Buhari, his deputy and some key ministers have expressed optimism that the country would soon find its way out of recession going by what they plan to do with the 2017 budget proposal currently under the scrutiny of the National Assembly.

    I guess those kind words were meant to rev up the mood of millions of dispirited and disoriented citizens who had given up hope of any redemptive action, especially with the new-found romance between the executive and the legislature in recent times. There is also the problem of unbelief in all this.

    The populace was battling to identify which part of the Buhari personae was active when he made the statement. Was it General Buhari or Buhari the politician? For, in truth, this President has given many reasons to doubt if he could truly walk his talk.

    In his Eid-el Maulud message, Buhari assured millions of economically manacled and socially traumatized citizens that the magical wand lay in the 2017 Appropriation Bill which he was to present to the joint session of the National Assembly that week. Without listing specific items on the budget proposal to justify his prognosis, Buhari, like many others before him, waxed lyrical about a future painted in solid bliss. Of course, it did not take time for his lieutenants to queue behind him. After acknowledging the biting reality of what he called temporary challenges that ”should not undermine our hope, reverse our collective will to succeed, or divide us; rather it should remind us of why we need to stay together, fight together and succeed together”.

    The President encouraged Nigerians “not to lose faith in the ability of this administration to make a difference in the lives of our people as we all share a vision of a better Nigeria, and we will all share in the responsibility of building the country of our dreams.” At another occasion while declaring open an induction course for Ambassadors designate, the President was quoted as saying that: “We are optimistic that the external factors that partly contributed to push our economy into recession will ebb in 2017.

    Until then, I regret that the resources available to fund our missions abroad will not be as robust as we would like. We are working hard to turn around our national economy by effectively reforming our macroeconomic environment through measures. As we are all making great sacrifices at home, we also expect you to similarly make judicious use of the resources put at the disposal of your missions.

    These are lean times, and all of us are expected to do more with less”. If good speeches equal good budgets, I doubt if this country would be wallowing in eternal squalor year in, year out. But, as experience has shown, the problem has never been in the deployment of the right words to soothe the mood. Instead, the narrative of the Nigerian tragedy lies in the failure of the leadership to walk the tight rope that many other great nations trod to the path of economic prosperity.

    For now, nothing suggests that this government headed by a tough, retired Army General, previously known for his parsimonious lifestyle and judicious use of scarce resources, can tame the crowd of self-indulgent profligates around him. Here I speak of those who are bent on splurging the lean resources he spoke about on lavish cravings rather than maximising such for the general wellbeing of all. With what reporters in different media have been sniffing out of Buhari’s post-recession budget of late, I doubt if the cabal that made a mess of the 2016 budget is not fully involved in packaging the latest documents which the President had placed his tall dream on.

    Why do I say this? Well, the answer is simple. Everything points to the fact that this is another hoax repackaged in sweet scented fragrance by the President’s men. Let’s look at the facts and figures. For a Presidency that canvasses prudent handling of lean funds from the national till due to drastic shortage of oil revenue, shouldn’t it be humbling that a miserly sum of N1bn only was budgeted for presidential travels in 2017? According to reports, this drop in the ocean funding will take care of Oga Buhari’s domestic (N239, 201,008) and international (N739, 487,784) trips.

    In the same year, the Presidency projects a total spending of N 11,020,382,572 out of which N1,335,460,936 goes to the State House (President’s Office); N 448,618,092 to state House Operations (Vice President’s Office) and N 331,730,211 to the State House Medical Centre. There is also that little detail about what the State House officials’ project to spend on local and foreign travels with N62, 975,000 (local) and N97, 209,138 (international).

    Don’t they ever get tired of hugging the sky? With sublime frugality, the President’s Chief Security Officer will have access to N123, 389, 951 out of which N90, 332,148 only would be spent on fuel and lubricants. Such benevolent sublimity would be extended to Dodan Barracks, former presidential seat of power in Lagos, with a total sum of N1.5bn out of which N145, 869,150 would go for “annual routine maintenance of facilities, including those at the Vice President’s residence and guest houses at Ikoyi”.

    The endless circles of presidential profligacy continue under different subheads with N502, 123, 645 going for utilities like N 319,625,75 (electricity charges); N 25,516,400 (internet access charges); N 76,400,004 (water rates); N 52,827,800 (sewerage charges) and N 27,753,687 on telephone calls. By the way, are we just realizing how expensive some presidential ‘shit’ can be? A whopping N52.8m to pack human waste, for overeating! O blimey.

    This time, the Presidency was silent on what it planned to spend on diesel for the power generators. But it itemized that State House (Headquarters) total personnel cost would gulp N1,751,587,617; N377,376,582 for allowances and social contribution and N 05,600,203 for general allowances while N 1,374,211,035 is for salaries and wages.

    In the same vein, honorarium and sitting allowances is projected to cost N556, 592,736 while an item described as “residential rent” is to gulp N 77,545,700. A loosely described ‘welfare package’ of N209. 5 million is also accommodated with N97.2m for meals and N29. 1m for sporting activities. Others include office furniture and fittings (N61. 9 m); computers (N14.5m); canteen and kitchen equipment (N100.8m); N100. 8m for an unstated number of motor vehicles and N97. 2 m for an unstated number of buses.

    That is aside the N400m earmarked for the purchase of vehicles to cushion the pleasurable ride of former presidents and their deputies which is cleverly carried under the subhead of the total N9.8bn projected budget of the Office of the Secretary of the Government of the Federation. You just cannot but wonder if anything has changed in the budget process to warrant the feeling of joy in high places. Why, I ask again, should plates, cutleries and kitchen utensils be changed every year in The Presidency? Do guests go home with these items after every dinner? Of course, I understand that focusing on the projections of The Presidency does not paint the whole picture and there are positive additions to the capital expenditure that should lift the spirit.

    What is clear is that, when push comes to shove in the nation’s tedious walk through a budget, the capital expenditure always suffers a deafening blow under the hammer of recurrent expenditure. Perhaps, the only exception to the rule might be the controversial constituency projects in which an errant gang of lawmakers in the National Assembly is audaciously asking for N182.5bn at a time when the jury is yet to decide on the N100bn they have appropriated for themselves for the same course in the last 14 years! It is from this same budget of hope, where the National Assembly has failed to show the public how it spends the N130bn direct withdrawals, that each senator projects to reap N1.7bn in salaries and sundry allowances according to a report in The Guardian of Tuesday, December 27, 2016.

    Now, they want to legislate a Constituency Development Fund which will be domiciled in the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development. If you ask them, they are likely to tell you that they would have no direct contacts with the funds. By the way, was that not the same excuse they gave for the frequent abuse of the N100bn constituency projects domiciled in the Office of the Adviser to the President on Millennium Development Goals? Well, if the Central Bank of Nigeria can afford a N3bn package for its workers in a year with another N7bn in allowances for officials, why won’t lawmakers who spend more time junketing the globe than sitting down to draft laws for the common good ask for more? The point is: Buhari may be beaming with glossy teeth over this budget.

    He deserves to flourish in what he believes would turn out to be a piece of document that would take Nigeria out of this economic impotence. However, when such outward ululations contradict the body and spirit of the itemized projections; when the elite in charge of the operational details have refused to significantly reduce their unbridled prodigality in the face of shrinking revenues, then we stand here to question the President and his co-travelers benumbing stranglehold on spurious optimism.

    But if they know what has changed in our budget process, let them denounce the figures above like they never did in last year’s budget even when an embattled lawmaker, Abdulmumin Jibrin, swore that what transpired was nothing but padding with a glint of legality with the understanding of the backwater slang of ‘you rub my back, I rub your back.’ So, what is significantly different this time to raise our expectations of a post-recession party? Is it the fact that this Presidency plans to spend N5.6bn on the repairs and rehabilitation Of Aso Rock next year after N642.5m it appropriated for the same job in the 2016 budget? So much for Buhari ‘s Budget of Growth and Recovery. I wish all of them soonest recovery from this reverie of deceit in the coming New Year!

  • Lagos Assembly passes 2017 budget

    The Lagos State House of Assembly on Tuesday passed the state’s 2017 Appropriation bill of N812.998 billion.

    The passage followed the adoption of the report and recommendations of the House Committee on Budget and Economic Planning, headed by Mr. Rotimi Olowo, the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports.

    The House approved the sum of N305.182 billion as total recurrent expenditure and N507.816 billion as the total capital expenditure for the year ending December 31, 2017.

    Olowo, while presenting the committee report, said the state was able to achieve 71 per cent budget performance in 2016 despite the economic recession in the country.

    The lawmaker said the state would embark on progressive taxation which would bring more people into the tax net and make the rich pay more.

    As part of the committee recommendations, the lawmaker said there was a need to comply with the Appropriation (Amendment) (Re-ordering) Law, 2016 to release funds to relevant Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs).

    He also urged the Ministry of Economic Planning and Budget to carry out a budget review of the 2015-2017 Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) of MDAs before allocating envelopes for 2018 proposed budget estimate.

     

     

     

  • ASUU urges Buhari to implement pact in 2017 budget

    ASUU urges Buhari to implement pact in 2017 budget

    The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has urged President Muhammadu Buhari to ensure that the agreement his administration reached with the union in 2009 and 2013 are properly captured and implemented in this year’s budget.
    The union said this was the only way the government could avert an industrial crisis in the Education sector this year.
    It also pledged to reposition the nation’s universities and guarantee the future of the children of the poor with access to qualitative education.
    A New Year message yesterday in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, by ASUU’s Chairman at the University of Ibadan (UI), Dr Deji Omole, said the union urged Nigerians to resist any plan by the ruling class to further impoverish them.
    ASUU advised the National Assembly to use its oversight functions to ensure that the budget is properly implemented to avert an industrial crisis in 2017.
    Hoping that 2017 would bring positive changes to the nation, the university system and the poor away from what it called the inconsistent policies of the present administration, ASUU vowed to also defend the rights of the masses and the funding of education.
    The union said government at all levels must now partner researchers in Nigerian universities to develop the country and invest in public education.
    He noted that the children of the rich would not be secured if children of the poor were not denied of their fundamental human rights to education, good health and basic amenities.
    Omole further stated that adequate funding of public education would play a major part in reducing crime and criminality in the society.

  • Will 2017 budget be felt by ordinary Nigerians?

    Will 2017 budget be felt by ordinary Nigerians?

    Another budget has been laid before the National Assembly, like others in the past. This time, its N7.3 trillion. The question is when the day is done and the budget passed, would it have any effect on the ordinary Nigerian?

    The truth is, the House of Representatives has always seized every opportunity to proclaim it is the House of the Nigerian people. No one is contesting that fact, the House no doubt is the closest to the grassroots, but it should put its money where its mouth is.

    The annual budget implementation threshold in the country for the past six years or more has never gone beyond 50 percent, especially the Capital component, yet there is a National Assembly that oversights Ministries Departments and Agencies. To what extent is the National Assembly effective in ensuring that annual appropriation Acts are followed to the letter? As things stand, the country is staring at another potentially unimplementable budget for 2017. The parameters are warped: the 2.2 million barrels per day oil production benchmark has not been achieved for the last three years. At best, its been 1.8 mbpd and this throws the calculations into disjunction. The Naira exchange rate of N305/ USD, is a far cry from current realities. Ministers to a large extent have shown lack of capacity and insensitivity on many fronts.

    The ritual is familiar, the President brings the budget in December to the joint sitting of the National Assembly; just before that, the Medium Term Expenditure Framework and Fiscal Strategy Paper are quickly passed by the House, parameters are adopted and while the President is on the podium,  the Senate Leader and the Speaker make well- crafted speeches, members clap. The President leaves, the legislature commences its Christmas break and returns in January to begin deliberations on the budget and another circle begins. If the country is lucky, the budget is passed by March or April, implementation then begins in May. Now, it is obvious that for the next decade or so, the financial year of the country would be an April to May twelve-month circle, probably forever.

    The speech of the Leader of the House, Femi Gbajaniamila, is necessary at this point. While giving a rundown of the activities of the House for the year 2016 before reporters at the National Assembly, he said: “At the beginning of the year 2016, we resumed to attend to the 2016 Appropriation Bill which was eventually passed on the 6th of May, 2016 with a clear understanding that the budget will run for 12 months as enshrined in the constitution. Therefore, despite the laying of 2017 budget by Mr. President on the 14th day of December 2016, the life of the 2016 budget only terminates on May 5, 2017.

    “The essence of this clarification is that the Committees of the House upon resumption in January 2017 will embark on rigorous oversight functions to ensure that the Ministries and Government Agencies do not abandon the implementation of the 2016 budget. In this context, the House of Representatives will not allow Nigerians suffer from any haphazard implementation of the 2016 budget.

    “We will continue to support the Executive with necessary legislative instruments required to increase economic activities in the country and alleviate the suffering of the masses.”

    Nice speech. But the truth is, there would be no end to nice speeches. Nigerians are demanding for timely and conscious implementation of annual budgets to the fullest. The consistent failure of annual budgets (especially the capital component), to make any meaningful impact on the lives of the ordinary people has led to the belief that the budget “belongs to them”.

    What good can come out of the budget that is not implemented? A budget is an annual ritual, after the financial priests have left the offering on the legislative shrine, what next? The season of agony and long suffering begins? A fatter budget by the government, leaner purses for the governed? Would it alleviate the suffering of the masses? Do the lawmakers have inkling, the faintest idea of the profound poverty, the agonizing pains people are going through?

    The President of the Senate, Bukola Saraki, in his speech on 14th December said he is aware of the sufferings. His words: “The overarching purpose of a budget is essentially to ease the economic pressure on our people in general and the poor most especially. The 2017 budget assumes even a greater significance, particularly in this time of recession. Mr. President, the feedback we get from visits to our various constituencies is that there is hardship in the land.

    “We can see it and we can feel it. This situation therefore commands all of us as government to a greater sense of urgency. We cannot work magic, but we must continue to work the clock.”

    Thankfully, someone in position understands the situation. But the question many ask is if someone contravenes the Appropriation Act, shouldn’t there be an appropriate sanction? If a minister or a Director General of a Ministry, Department or Agency fails to implement projects appropriated for, shouldn’t there be a sanction? Can the National Assembly swing that? Perhaps a cerebral lawmaker can come up with a budget law that will stipulate penalties for infractions of the Appropriation Law? Isn’t it right time someone went to prison for breaching the budget law?

    But in all of these, many Nigerian workers are praising the statement of the leader of the House, Femi Gbajabiamila, that workers are presently earning peanuts. On the possibility of increasing the salary of workers, particularly in the face of soaring inflation and biting recession, he admitted that salaries at present “are very low,” and that “something has to be done about it.”

  • Patriotism and the 2017 Budget

    The speech with which President Muhammadu Buhari presented the 2017 budget to a joint session of the National Assembly on December 14 should be of interest to Nigerians beyond the fiscal details of the presentation.
    This additional interest, which I consider as important as those fiscal details, arises from his hint at patriotism as a critical factor in reversing the country’s current economic woes in addition to the implementation of the budget, which he enthusiastically described as the “Budget of Recovery and Growth … designed to bring the economy out of recession and to a path of steady growth and prosperity.”
    He makes a direct reference to patriotism in his remark about “those courageous and patriotic men and women who believed in Nigeria” and who “are now seeing the benefits gradually come to fruition,” having seized the opportunity provided by the current economic challenges and turned them to account with their “creativity, talents and resilience.”
    But his indirect hints at patriotism as a critical factor in pulling the country out of recession and putting it on the path of sustainable economic growth afterwards are even more significant.
    They remind us that “we wasted our large foreign exchange reserves to import nearly everything we consume. Our food, our clothing, our manufacturing inputs, our fuel and much more.” And that “by importing nearly everything, we provide jobs for young men and women in the countries that produce what we import, while our own young people wander around jobless.” And that “by preferring imported goods, we ensure steady jobs for the nationals of other countries, while our own farmers, manufacturers, engineers, and marketers, remain jobless.”
    Then, he enthuses about the slow but sure disappearance of “that old Nigeria” and the rise of “a new era…in which we grow what we eat and consume what we make.”
    In this new era, he continues, “we will increasingly grow and process our own food, we will manufacture what we can and refine our own petroleum products. We will buy ‘Made in Nigeria’ goods. We will encourage garment manufacturing and Nigerian designers, tailors and fashion retailers. We will patronise local entrepreneurs. We will promote the manufacturing powerhouses in Aba, Calabar, Kaduna, Kano, Lagos, Nnewi, Onitsha, and Ota. From light manufacturing to cement production and petrochemicals, our objective is to make Nigeria a new manufacturing hub.”
    Yes. President Buhari has his critics some of whom he can be said to have cultivated through his actions. But I doubt that any of them can contest the sincerity of these words and the relevance of the associated propositions to solving the country’s lingering economic problems if they are implemented.
    He can be summed up as saying that, regardless of our financial situation as a nation, our attitude as a people is critical to our economic survival during this period of recession, and our prosperity afterwards. We cannot be patronizing imported goods at the expense of our own, consequently starving our manufactures of funds and denying our citizens of jobs, and expect to become a self-reliant, let alone prosperous, nation.
    And when I read his exhortation to buy “Made in Nigeria” goods, I recalled when the United States, during the Clinton presidency, was facing severe economic challenges with the concomitant rise of the Japanese economy in the early 1990s, with Japanese goods, especially the technological ones, seeming generally preferable to their American equivalents even to Americans.
    Even the United States government countered the trend by sponsoring the “Buy American” campaign through radio jingles and whatnot. So President Buhari’s call to buy “Made in Nigeria” goods has an American precedent. And it is simply about patriotism, about putting the survival of one’s country first, like the Americans who responded positively to the “Buy American” campaign and returned to patronising American goods in preference to foreign ones.
    Incidentally, this is one aspect of the budget presentation speech that can resonate with economic experts and laymen alike. Even our recent profligate past, in which we earned so much from oil without saving for the future, showing lack of patriotism on the part of those responsible, is a clear indication that financial buoyancy alone does not guarantee economic security, especially in the light of what we now face partly as a result of that profligacy, suddenly confronted with lean times and the sudden drop in the price of oil, our major revenue earner.
    Without the right attitude from Nigerians and government officials who would be directing spending in implementation of the budget, without a deliberate choice to put our money where our mouth is – in our country – the N7.298 trillion 2017 budget may turn out a budget of capital flight rather than recovery and growth as the president has pronounced it.
    Unfortunately, even under Buhari’s watch, the government has been negligent in following his patriotic blueprint for economic revival. Otherwise the Senate’s purchase of “108 Toyota Land Cruisers” in April this year at the cost of “N3.8 billion” should have been patronage directed at the local auto industry, which evidently needs the money for its survival and growth more than the Japanese owner of the Toyota brand. What is worse? The Senate allegedly spent twice the normal price on the vehicles!
    Lack of political will has been blamed for the country’s inability to save in a time of plenty under the immediate past government. But I think that dereliction also reflects lack of moral will and patriotism on the part of those who should have ensured the savings, seeing that the supposed lack of political will did not prevent them from taking good care of themselves in their private capacities.
    The same situation can recur, and prevent the implementation of Buhari’s redemptive pan-Nigerian economic blueprint as articulated in the budget speech, unless he has the political and moral will to compel government to buy “Made in Nigeria,” thereby leading by example and giving governmental justification for his administration’s mantra: Change begins with me.
    Imagine the impact of Nigerians knowing that their president uses products from what he acknowledged as “the manufacturing powerhouses in Aba, Calabar, Kaduna, Kano, Lagos, Nnewi, Onitsha, and Ota.” Imagine the effect of their seeing him drive or be driven around in a “Made in Nigeria” car. Imagine the result of their hearing him persuade government agencies, especially those in the executive arm directly under his control, to patronise Nigerian goods as a priority, having been known to do so himself. How inspiring that would be to the cause of ensuring the country’s economic revival and subsequent growth under his watch and in accordance with his blueprint of economic patriotism!

  • Fayose signs 2017 budget into law

    Ekiti State Governor, Ayo Fayose, on Wednesday signed the state’s 2017 Budget of N94 billion into law.

    It was an increase of a billion naira on the budget estimates of N93 billion presented to the Ekiti State House of Assembly by the governor some weeks ago.

    According to the Speaker, Kola Oluwawole, the additional one billion naira was added ‎to the capital expenditure presented to the Assembly.

    Speaking on the occasion, Fayose said Ekiti was among the four states of the federation where the 2017 Budgets had been passed into law.

    He stated the harmonious relationship between the executive ‎and legislative arms of government would continue to subsist.

    Fayose commended the lawmakers and the people of the state for their‎ support.