The Nation Newspaper

Tag: budget

  • Jonathan to present budget next week

    Jonathan to present budget next week

    Sequel to the postponement of the scheduled presentation of the 2014 budget before a joint sitting of the two chambers of the National Assembly on Tuesday, President Goodluck Jonathan is now to present the 2014 budget before the National Assembly on the 19th of November.

    A letter to this effect with the short title: “Re: 2014 Budget,” from the President and addressed to the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Aminu Waziri Tambuwal read in part:

    “Sequel to” my letter of 23rd October 2013 requesting that the Honourable House grant me the slot of 12:00 noon on Tuesday, 12th November 2013 to enable me formaity address a Joint Session of the National Assembly on the 2014 Budget, emergent circumstances have necessitated my having to request for a new date of Tuesday. 19th November 2013 at the same time.

    It is my hope that the Honourable Members will in your usual tradition, favourably consider my request.”

    The president has also sent a report to the National Assembly justifying the reason he asked for an extension of the State of Emergency in Adamawa, Borno and Yobe States.

    In a letter dated November 5, 2013 and addressed to the Speaker with the title: “ Re: Extension of the period for the Proclamation of a state of Emergency,” Jonathan said he has attached a report by the Chief of Army Staff on the current situation in the affected areas.

  • Reps bicker over NDDC’s N315.8b budget

    Reps bicker over NDDC’s N315.8b budget

    A report by the House Committee on Niger Delta Development Commission’s (NDDC) N315.8billion budget for 2013 resulted yesterday in a passionate debate in the House of Representatives.

    The report was laid before the House by the Deputy Chair of the Committee, Hon. Ibrahim Mohammed Garba, on behalf of the Chairman, Mutu Nicholas Ebomo.

    Hon. Karmil Akinlabi (PDP Oyo), raising a Point of Order, queried the propriety of bringing a budget with just a few weeks to the end of the year.

    Quoting Section 80(4) of the Constitution, Akinlabi wondered what the NDDC has been spending since April if they were bringing their budget at this late period.

    But the Deputy Leader, Hon. Leo Ogor, said the House had already ruled on the report. “We’re violating the rules of the House. We can’t go back into what the House has ruled on. Financial year is January to December, and any other time prescribed by the National Assembly.

    However, the Minority Leader, Femi Gbajabiamila (APC Lagos), was of the opinion that the observation by Hon. Akinlabi was important, saying Section 18(4) of the Constitution is the basis on which Karmil was querying the NDDC budget.

    “Matters like this can be brought at any time. What he is saying is based on section 80(4). We are in November now, from April to now, what has the NDDC been spending? I think this is what the House should look into. We should not sweep it under the carpet,” Gbajabiamila said.

    But a member, Uzoma Nkem Abonta ( PDP Abia) vehemently opposed Gbajabiamila’s position. Speaking on a Point of Order, he said: “They have been denied the money till now, let them have the money. Did the report say they’ve been spending money till now. We gave the job to a committee. Is this point of Order an attempt to stop the region from their rights?

    Sam Tsokwa, (PDP Taraba) Chairman of the House Committee on Rule and Business tried putting the issue in proper context.

    “Lets look at what the Constitution calls a financial year. Financial year means any period of 12 months beginning from January of any year, or any such other date as the National Assembly may prescribe.The April to December (on the NDDC report) is a mistake that can be rectified when the report is at the Committee of the Whole”

    Gbajabiamila however insisted that the issue of the financial year is not the only one in contention. “The issue that is being addressed apart from the financial year is section 80(4), where did the money that they ( NDDC) have been spending come from?

    At this juncture, Hon. John Enoh (PDP Cross River), Chairman House Committee on Appropriation, waded into the issue, saying the Constitution permits some latitude for such spending before the passage of a budget.

    He said: “The report of the Committee has been laid before the House. I think most of the issues being discussed are issues for the Committee of the Whole. While Section 80(4) is important, the Constitution permits expenditure for 6 months before the budget is passed.

    The Deputy Speaker, Emeka Ihedioha, who presided while ruling said, he has noted the Point of Order raised by Hon. Akinlabi. “I request and appeal to our colleagues that if there are complaints, members should bring them during the consideration of the report.

  • Budget: Amosun consults residents

    Budget: Amosun consults residents

    Ogun State Governor Ibikunle Amosun has said all ongoing projects in the state will be completed before his tenure expires.

    He spoke at the June 12, Cultural Centre, Abeokuta, during a Town Hall meeting with stakeholders on projects to be included in the 2014 budget.

    Amosun said: “The essence of this assembly is to jointly define our priorities and collectively articulate our development agenda for 2014. We invited all stakeholders to get their input in next year’s budget estimate.”

    The governor assured them that suggestions made at the meeting would be considered in the preparation of the 2014 budget.

    He said efforts to engage the youth in agriculture were yielding results, adding that many unemployed youths were presently engaged at farm settlements across the state.

    On the request for the construction of more roads, schools and hospitals, Amosun said plans were underway to do so.

    On environmental cleanliness, he warned residents against indiscriminate refuse disposal, stressing that it can cause environmental and health hazards.

    He urged them to always dispose refuse in bins and at designated collection centres.

    Assuring the people that his administration would continue to protest their interest, Amosun said: “We shall remain focused in our mission to make positive impact in the lives of our people. I assure you that this administration will not leave any of the on-going projects uncompleted. Our actions and efforts in the past 29 months have been channelled towards the realisation of this great vision.”

    He said his administration had showed that its ‘mission to rebuild’ was not just another government propaganda but an elaborate master plan to bring about socio-economic progress.

    The governor said despite challenges caused by dwindling resources from the Federation Account, the government was committed to the successful implementation of its five-point agenda.

    He said: “We have no doubt that we are on course. We shall deliver on our promises. We have recorded some remarkable achievements this year and we are poised to consolidate on them in 2014.“

    Amosun thanked the people for support and cooperation, which he said led to the realisation of government programmes.

    He said he would continue to involve stakeholders in governance.

  • N600 billion census budget outrageous

    The chairman of the National Population Commission (NPC), Festus Odimegwu said recently that he would need N600 billion to conduct the next census. This is at a time when the Federal Government through its act of omission or commission has shut down all state and federal universities in the country because it cannot find N87 billion being demanded by the teachers. It would not surprise me if this same Federal Government finds N600 billion to give to the census body when you cannot ride on any Nigerian road without running into huge craters and gutters. At the end of each census, we come up with spurious numbers that are not believed by anybody or believable at all. What is apparent in Nigeria is not always real, it is the case of the more you see, the less it counts. At election times, small states produce more votes than states that are much bigger and much more populous if only to get their preferred candidate elected.

    Apart from the census of 1956 which put Nigeria’s population at 32 million, all other censuses have been marred by forgeries. During enumeration of people, it is not uncommon for villages to contribute money to give to enumerators in order to boost their population figures and yet we call this a census. Enumeration of any kind in Nigeria is totally without integrity. When states are asked to come up with the number of school aged children, the figures given sometimes outstrip the population of the entire state. Any exercise requiring figures in Nigeria is usually manipulated because of the financial implications of figures in Nigeria. Would it not be better to save N600 billion and just get statisticians to give us projected population of Nigeria based on a baseline of 1952 and rate of increase at 3% per year or something of that sort rather than the spurious figures bandied around dishonestly by NPC?

    Nobody can swear on the figures of Nigeria’s population. Today, we are told that we are about 170 million but I do not believe it. I personally do not believe that Nigeria is more than 100 million; the remaining 70 million are ghosts as far as I am concerned. The idea of population count every 10 years should be jettisoned and replaced by population count every two decades. The money saved should be used for development of infrastructure of the country. Imagine what N600 billion can do in the development of Nigeria. Odimegwu and his NPC should be asked to go on holidays and come back 20 years after the last census and give us the chance to use the money saved to develop the country. Census is about people and about development. Arbitrary figures are of no importance whatsoever to the development of Nigeria and if we need to take the next census, we should do it scientifically by calling in experts from the UN to do area mapping of Nigeria and to point out the centres of concentration of people through settlement pattern and then project the overall population of our country. This can be done through area photography without the arduous, primitive enumeration and money guzzling system Nigeria revels in.

    We know that elections are around the corner and people are looking for money for election, but we can’t be fooled all the time. The figure of N600 billion for counting Nigerians, many of whom are poor, despairing and despondent such that they would take the money rather than being counted, if given the option is outrageous. There are so many outlandish things going on at the centre in Abuja; recently, the Nigerian Space Authority or something of that sort says it is planning to send Nigerian astronauts into space by 2020. When I read this in the paper, I just laughed that what a country! And I asked myself – how is that important to the ordinary men and even to men who are not ordinary? What direct benefit will sending an astronaut into space bring to Nigeria? Are we going to reinvent the wheel?

    Countries that are sending people into space are already developed and have the basic requirement of decent living for their people. Why would a country whose people still defecate in the bushes or in open space and whose people have no potable water to drink or electricity to light their homes and power their businesses, decent educational and health facilities, efficient transportation system be planning to engage in the expensive venture of space exploration when the Russians and the Americans, the two leading nations in this area are deemphasising state participation while encouraging the private sector to take over these expensive ventures?

    We make fools of ourselves by pretending to be a big power when in fact we are not. We should cut our coat according to our cloth and face the reality of underdevelopment and try to overcome it. This is the challenge we face, the challenge of husbanding our resources and embarking on rapid development, transformation and industrialising our country while we still have the resources accruing from hydro-carbon exploitation. Our mono-cultural economy cannot be sustained forever and in fact cannot be sustained for too long, we have only about 30 years to transform this economy or die. Future generations of Nigeria will not forgive us if we do not embark on the process of transformation right now. Unfortunately, there is too much politicking in the land, too much talk about election in 2015 when in fact nobody knows who would be around tomorrow. We need to do the first thing first, let those who are in government right now discharge their responsibilities to the electorate, fulfil the promises on which they were elected and let the future take care of itself. Nigerians are a long-suffering people and I admire them for that and there is even wisdom in being long-suffering because revolutions do not always pan out. It is better to be long-suffering and to hope for evolutionary changes rather than wish or engineer sudden changes. But sometimes herd instincts and mob mentality can push a people to the edge of a precipice when they feel that the situation is hopeless. We are getting to this point in Nigeria where the more we spend on power generation, the less power we get. For the past 14 years, power generation in Nigeria has not increased past 4000 megawatts and yet, billions of dollars have been spent on this sector without any appreciable change in our power generation situation. Electricity generation is not rocket science, other third world countries and indeed other African countries like our neighbour Ghana have managed to stabilise their power sector to the extent that generators are not as everywhere in Ghana as they are in Nigeria. Would it not be wonderful if the present regime can tell us categorically when every home in Nigeria will have power 24 hours every day? This is something that is taken for granted in most countries of the world even in countries where the frigid weather should militate against this. If we have a government that can guarantee regular supply of water and electricity, then we would know that we are gradually coming out of the stone-age in which we have been consigned by previous administrations. The needs of Nigerians are not many and not outrageous or outlandish. What we require are basic needs for decent human living and we hope and pray that one day, a government would come that would be able to deliver on this simple needs rather than giving us outrageous budgetary figures on space exploration and demographic enumeration.

  • Niger scores self high on budget

    The Niger State government yesterday said it attained 89.6 per cent implementation in the first half of this year on its N84.9 billion budget.

    The Commissioner of Planning and Economic Development, Alhaji Yahaya Dan’Salau, addressed reporters in Minna, the state capital, on the level of the state’s implementation of the budget.

    He put the state’s receipts from the statutory Federation Accounts, the Value Added Tax (VAT), the Subsidy Reinvestment Programme (SURE-P), the Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) and Bond at N37.7 billion, from January to June.

    The commissioner explained that the N27.4 billion earnings consist of N4.2 billion from VAT; N1.3 billion from SURE-P; N2 billion from IGR; N9 billion from bond and the balance from the statutory monthly allocations.

    Dan’Salau said the government, within the period, spent N11 billion on capital projects, including road infrastructure in the three senatorial districts.

    He said: “As part of our administration’s policy of embarking on accountable and transparent transactions, we have recorded 89.6 per cent implementation of the 2013 budget.”

  • ‘Executive, legislature quarrel over budget is uncalled for’

    ‘Executive, legislature quarrel over budget is uncalled for’

    The executive and legislative arms of government have always been at daggers drawn over the budget. What is your advice for the government to avoid a reoccurrence?

    I am using the family as an example of the nation. For many of us, we know that when issues that are important are on the table, we expect our parents and to go into their room and discuss the matter particularly when it affects the welfare of the family and the children. Very serious matters are not what you start throwing all over the place, like the children going back to school, like provision of food in the kitchen, these are not something that you discuss in the open. Rather, these are issues that require you to go into your room, discuss and then you come out with a proposal. So, I think the presidency and the Senate arguing about budgetary things, more or less in the public is worrisome. There has to be a certain level of dialogue that is not exactly necessarily in the open, because there are fundamental needs to be met. Without the budget, the country doesn’t run.

     

    So, what is the way out?

    I think because of the welfare of the whole nation, all that the businessmen will tell you is that business is not good because government is the biggest spender, yet there is no money around. So, for that reason there is mass suffering and the economy is not moving. There has to be a take-a-little, give-a-little to get the nation moving. And generally when there is an issue of disagreement, if both parties are willing to trade off a little bit of their positions, you find out it is more easier to find a middle line that will actually take care of the bigger picture, which is the well-being of the people in the nation. That is what I really recommend between the leadership of the executive and the legislative arms of government. Dialogue are not necessarily to be done in the open but you look at the greater cause of moving the nation forward and the people, not being static and let that drive the agreement that is  necessary to move the nation forward.

    There was outrage when the president urged the governors to sign the death penalty in order to decongest the prisons. Where does the church stand on this?

    You have to realise that I am a man of God and the law of God is superior to the law of man. Every human law that we have evolves from the word of God. And that is very true, every human law derives from the living oracles  of the word of God, whether the law of Moses, ten commandments etc. The question now is, when did we get capital punishment? But the law of God sanctifies human life. Nobody is really allowed to take human life, except in times of war and that is really a different thing entirely. I will say that from the word of God, you cannot justify capital punishment. A life you cannot create, you cannot destroy. The value of a human life is immeasurable. I can tell you for sure that life imprisonment is okay but I struggle honestly with capital punishment. If the governors don’t want to sign, I am sure you know the reason why they don’t want to do that. They struggle with taking the responsibility to have somebody executed and I am sure a lot of us here if you are governor, and you can avoid signing the warrant, you will avoid it.

    It doesn’t mean somebody who kills somebody else, that that person should be killed. The question again is, who wants to kill that person? If they give you a gun and say kill this man because he has killed somebody, you will struggle to do that except maybe when your passion is very high. When you think about it and also I think also for the reason that there could be miscarriage of justice, there is no way to change the fact, if you kill somebody for an offence and evidence now show later on and you now find the real killer, yet somebody had been killed for an offence he knows nothing about. That doesn’t leave room for any correction. I think the church will struggle with capital punishment.

    The church, in spite of its proliferation, has been accused of misplaced priority by preaching prosperity instead of morals, thereby encouraging corruption. Do you agree?

    It is an honest question though one that will make all of us feel really uncomfortable. But it has been said that Nigeria is the nation with the most churches in the world and yet corruption continues to grow. We have a question we have to address. I can’t tell you I have all the answers but I agree that if churches are increasing, corruption should be reducing and the moral values should be increasing. I think that perhaps the church should preach and teach more about values not necessarily for prosperity because if you have prosperity and you have no values, it is not really worth it. I think the churches will need to go back to some fundamentals, by that I am not saying every church is not doing that. A lot of churches are doing that but I think that maybe we should do a lot more in that regards.

    What is your take on same sex marriage and the decision of the Senate to ban it?

    The Bible tells us that towards the end, men will be lovers of themselves, they will be heartless, reckless, they will be haters of good, and they will be disobedient to parents, lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God. Again the Bible says it will be very bad towards the end. So some of things we are seeing today are actually prophetic and not the fault of the church. Things are going to get worse and worse till the day of the Lord and there is definitely nothing the church can do to change that. It is a definite mark of the end. For instance, you have to also thank the church that Nigeria is one of the largest nations of the world standing against same sex marriage. Every other nation that we say that their corruption is less than us, they actually shut down churches that will not marry people of same sex. So, in that regard, we still have fundamental values that we are not celebrating homosexuality  in the churches. It happens all over the place so you can’t just measure the state of the nation in terms of financials corruption. There is also moral decadence and for me, I wonder maybe that is one of the reasons why Britain is taking a shot at Nigeria with this entire 3,000 pounds sterling visa bond. They have promised to come against Nigeria for outlawing same sex marriage and immediately they are telling us that if you want to come to England, you have to deposit 3,000 pounds and withdrawing all kinds of support from Nigeria. So, in a way I think that puts Nigeria ahead of the rest of the world at least in that regard.

     

  • Finally, the 2013 budget is parsed

    Hurray, Nigeria eventually has an appropriation document to run with as the National Assembly (NASS) finally approves this year’s budget. This is coming in the third quarter of the year when most other countries are fine-tuning their 2014 budget. You may argue that the budget had been running but that must be only on a crutch as the executive and legislative arms of government engaged in a protracted battle of (no) wits. As our governments are wont, no explanations were proffered as to the root of the crisis; as to why the economy had to run at half capacity for the better part of the year. As in most other things, we are only left to our conjectures.

    Even in the best of times when our budgets suffered no high-wire altercations and horse-trading, our fiscal documents virtually amounted to naught; now it seems doomed on delivery. What was at issue? The untold story is that the executive arm would not ‘accommodate’ the NASS, especially as concerns their allocations for constituency projects. The sums proposed by the lawmakers were viciously slashed by the presidency team. In an angry reprisal, NASS reached for a machete and recklessly slashed the Bill almost beyond the recognition of its owners. In some cases, the sharks cut so deep they almost crunched bones. This naturally left the document in tatters leaving the Finance Minister and Coordinating Minister of the Economy (CME) in pitiful distress.

    The lawmakers couldn’t be bothered, they in fact went ahead to pass the Bill in such miserably inoperable state warning that they would not entertain any supplementary Bill. But this particular one, they let it be known, was subject to adjustment after all concerned have ‘reasoned’ together. This was exactly what happened: some constituency funds not less than N50 billion was released, to be warehoused and disbursed by the Minister of Special Duties. The Ministry of Works and not the legislators would award and execute all the constituency projects accordingly. (Aside: they could tell that to the marines; Nigerians know better than that). The important point to note here, however, is that it was only after this uncanny ‘accommodation’ was reached that the NASS went back to the vomit of a budget they refused to pass and passed it after some rapid sessions.

    If you thought that there were some reasons, principled or not, why the lawmakers held the country to ransom for seven months, there is not a single one. At least that is what came out when they eventually re-passed the Bill on July 25. Both the rejected Bill and the one just passed are estimated at N5 trillion. The difference between the twain is just about N162 million. The NASS simply reinstated the portions of the budget they had chopped off in anger.

    Now you see why our budgets hardly work: they are often not based on sound economic bases; personal interests often override patriotism and reason. Too much viruses are injected into the document that it is diseased and probably dead by the time it reaches implementation stage. Do you see why year-on-year the budget increases yet our infrastructure shrinks and we borrow even more? Can you begin to fathom why our lawmakers are the highest paid in the world by miles? Yet they earn so much for doing no work as a recent report show that about one-third of our senators have not sponsored nary a bill after two year in office. They probably have been absentee lawmakers hardly attending sessions yet their bank alerts would ring frequently like a busy supermarket’s cash register (mind you they don’t use those noisy analogue machines anymore!).

    To think that this matter we toy with is the most important business of our lawmakers. You see why we are in perpetual crises, you see why our youths are unemployed; you see why see why the country is in perpetual retreat? Our leaders mess around with the most important task we have assigned them.

     

  • Ogun: our mid-year budget performance fair

    •IGR hits N4b monthly

    THE  Ogun State Government yesterday said its half year budget performance is fair.

    It was optimistic that a better progress would be achieved by the third and fourth quarter.

    It said the improved performance is made possible through the aggressive and collective commitment by the government to the state’s Internally-Generated Revenue (IGR), which stands at an average of N4 billion monthly.

    The House of Assembly last December approved the 2013 budget of N211.8 billion sent to it by Governor Ibikunle Amosun.

    Addressing reporters in Abeokuta, the Commissioner for Budget and Planning, Mrs. Oluwande Muoyo, said the state recorded a budget performance of 61.26 per cent. She described it as a “marked improvement” over performances in previous years.

    Mrs. Muoyo said the Amosun administration was making progress in its development agenda as encapsulated in the five cardinal programmes of affordable and qualitative education, healthcare delivery, agriculture production and industrialisation, among others.

    Said she: “Our administration recognises the place of infrastructural development as a key stimulating economic growth, creating jobs and alleviating poverty. We have, therefore, committed efforts towards massive infrastructural regeneration and development across the state.”

    According to the commissioner, the good road network being developed in the state would stimulate commerce and inter-linkages between sectors, adding that security is provided to ensure the safety of life and property of the residents.

    She noted that the developmental programmes undertaken by the Amosun administration required funding.

    Mrs. Muoyo appealed to indigenes to perform their civic duties and prevail on their employers to pay taxes to the state.

     

  • I’m not dumping PDP – Tambuwal

    I’m not dumping PDP – Tambuwal

    … Assures Nigerians on budget

    The Speaker of the Federal House of Representatives, Honorable Aminu Tambuwal, on Friday dispelled rumors that he was on the verge of joining an opposition party.

    Apparently reacting to President Jonathan Goodluck Jonathan’s warning to elected political office holders under the platform of the party Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) that he would not hesitate to wield the big stick if they are found wanting, the Speaker said he is a member of the party.

    President Jonathan, according to reports warned that the “new PDP” would not condone indiscipline among its members, after accusing some of the leading lights of openly fraternizing with the opposition.

    “In a situation where somebody is in a particular party but his faith is in another political party. For those who are not holding political offices, yes, you can excuse. But if you are holding an elective office, you won’t be in that party and be working for another party, otherwise, why are you there? “the president asked rhetorically.

    Tambuwal, who was reacting to questions from journalists at the Benin Airport about rumors of his perceived anti- party activities following his alliance with members of the Action Congress of Nigeria, said he is still a member of the PDP and would remain one. “I’ m a member of the PDP, I am a PDP man. I’m hearing that rumours from you,” he said amidst laughter.

    The speaker also said that the rift between the National Assembly and the Executive over the 2013 appropriation act was in the interest of the generality of Nigerians

    Tambuwal, who was in Benin as a guest of the state Deputy Governor, Dr. Pius Odubu, on his birthday and weeding anniversary told reporters at the Benin Airport that consultations were ongoing and at the appropriate time Nigerians will benefit from the budget.

    “Well, you know it is all about consultation and we will keep talking to ourselves and ensure that Nigerians get the best out of it. But I assure you that what National Assembly is doing is to ensure that Nigerians get the best out of the situation. We are not there to undermine the interest of Nigerians; we will be the last people to ever do that,” the number four citizen added.

     

  • Budget brouhaha

    If a country’s budget is in a mess, it is straight, simple logic that the country’s economy, if not the entire polity, could become one stretch of quagmire. Seventh month of the year yet the country’s most important working document, 2013 Appropriation Act, is dog-eared and in tatters. Not from handling it in the bid to diligently carry out its legitimate mandate, but from unyielding contentions and bare-faced chicanery. This all-important document is being wizened not in order to determine the fine points and delicate nuances of its requirements for the utmost good of the citizenry, no. It’s all about personal interests, turf fights between the executive and the legislature.

    The budget, the budget, it’s the budget, stupid. How we long for the day when we will get a grip on the federal budget once again. Most state budgets we have lost forever as they are disbursed from the shirt pockets of the big men. Local government budgets are long dead and interred thanks to the undertakers of the local council system. The federal budget, therefore, represents the last frontiers of budgeting in this vast, receding polity. Let’s save the budgeting system, if only to help our children learn the nebulous, arcane art of planning, projecting, juxtaposing, virements, project execution, monitoring and implementation.

    But budgeting has become a dying art in Nigeria and the 2013 budget is in utter ruins. By the time the 2013 Appropriation Act eventually emerged from the National Assembly (NASS) early in the year, it was already half dead hanging only on life support. For about a month, the President would not accent to it. When he eventually did, it was a conditional accent. Don’t ask Hardball if he appended half of his signature on it but he promised to return it to NASS. A few weeks later, on March 14, precisely, President Goodluck Jonathan returned the Act to the NASS. On June 26, the NASS threw it back at him. Ding, dong, like ping, pong our budget goes.

    The first tragedy here is that this matter is as complicated as the budget itself to the point that Hardball cannot help you to unravel it (sorry). The lesser tragedy (since we are entranced in delirious ignorance) is that they are playing ping-pong with your life. The final tragedy is that since they have befuddled our lives so much, that puts them at liberty to brand us ignoramuses who cannot understand basic economics and there ends the matter till the next season of (budget madness).

    As it stands, two quarters have passed yet we don’t know how much of the budget has been actualised. The NASS accuses the executives of seeking to amend an already approved budget instead of sending in a supplementary. The executives in turn insist NASS is balking so much on the matter because it had not released a N100 billion constituency projects cash. For your information, our representatives are passionately fighting to execute about 469 capital projects in constituencies across Nigeria for our edification. Without being prompted, they insist they will have no hand in the projects since the Ministry of Special Duties would handle them. And they are thoroughly piqued that the executives through the instrumentality of the Finance Minister who doubles as the Co-ordinating Minister of the Economy (CME) is sitting on their project cash (sorry on the project cash). Where in our constitution is this position of the CME, some have asked angrily?

    Don’t ask me if I have seen a constituency project before in my constituency. You could jolly well count your teeth with your tongue. Don’t ask me if the Ministry of Special Duties is the new Ministry of Works and whether it has the capacity to execute 469 projects across Nigeria. Please ask no more questions because I am as confounded as you are. Please let’s move forward…it is at times like this that you appreciate the strictly Nigerian idea of moving forward.