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  • Experts chart ways to make 2024 budget effective

    Experts chart ways to make 2024 budget effective

    As the nation awaits the this month’s ending target for the unveiling of the 2024 budget, experts have called for a review of the budgeting process to make it more effective and inclusive.

    Experts at BudgIT said the 2024 budget would be the next most important assignment before the President Bola Tinubu administration, urging the new government to avoid several pitfalls that had caused the previous budgets to fail in achieving optimal goals.

    “Nigeria has had a history of misallocating scarce resources through the budget and wasteful spending, resulting in the worst human development indices and creating fiscal space for state capture. As the 2024 budget process begins in earnest, President Tinubu must pay attention to certain things that have caused the Federal Government budget, despite huge resources allocated and spent, to fail in meeting the country’s development goals, reducing poverty, creating jobs, and fostering inclusive broad-based economic growth,” BudgIT said.

    In the policy document on 2024 budget, experts at BudgIT said the government should ensure that the budget is drawn from a plan, not treated like a contract vending machine.

    According to experts, the national budget is broken and has delivered sub-optimal results because it has not been linked with national strategic plans written for the medium or short term.

    “Beyond the broad line of macroeconomic variables, a glance at the Nigerian budget reveals an aggregation of projects that lacks coherence and compatibility with the national strategy. The budget must be an annual resource plan to deliver a nation’s coordinated vision; it must be self-evident in its line items and ensure this fits into grand ideas to deliver sustainable growth.

    “The President has a public manifesto, and the Federal Government recently, at a huge cost, also delivered strategic plans that terminate in 2025 and 2050. It does not make sense if the national budget is not linked to these documents. The budget needs to stop just being a contract vending machine stuffed with varied interests but a thorough planning document,” BudgIT stated.

    BudgIT also stressed the importance of ensuring that the National Assembly is included in the budget submission circular for the zonal intervention projects they intend to implement in their constituencies, noting that this will lessen instances of severe budget line item distortion and unreasonable insertions during National Assembly budget evaluations.

    According to analysts, the public has not really seen the inclusion of the National Assembly in the budget preparation process, thereby not allowing for the breakdown of the N100 billion zonal intervention projects to be duly included in the federal government budget draft.

    They noted that the exclusion of the National Assembly gives the legislators opportunity to drastically alter the appropriation bill in the process of inserting their constituency projects.

    “Nigerians look forward to Tinubu’s administration and a budget that leaves little or no room for the National Assembly to distort the fiscal direction of the budget,” BudgIT stated.

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    Experts also noted the importance of ensuring the credibility of the budget, which brings even development and potentially leads to higher-quality livelihoods for citizens.

    “The capacity of a state to meet its expenditure projections demonstrates its ability to govern, and the competence of a state to attain its revenue projections shows its expertise in governance. Not attaining revenue projections implies a widening fiscal deficit and a ballooning debt profile. Between 2015 and 2021, Nigeria didn’t achieve 70 per cent of its revenue projection, which led to a spike in borrowing from the Central Bank of Nigeria through Ways and Means. In the same vein, poor service delivery, abandoned projects, failing infrastructure and poor human capital development indices among others directly result from budgets that have been under-implemented or poorly implemented.

    “When a country cannot effectively and efficiently implement its budget, it can create detrimental human costs. The Federal Government is incentivised to meet its projections, as this can signal to international financial institutions that its economy is stable enough for foreign investment and concessionary credit. As the formulation of the 2024 budget commences, the Federal Government should endeavour to accurately and consistently project what it has the capacity to earn as revenue and spend to implement its planned programme of activities.

    “Nigeria’s infrastructure and human development needs cannot be addressed by anything less than successive fiscal years of significant spending. The federal budget has had a growing recurrent expenditure profile but, interestingly, a relatively static capital expenditure profile within the past eight years. While actual recurrent debt expenditure grew from N1.060 trillion in 2015 to N4.22 trillion in 2021, actual Capital expenditure barely changed, moving from N601.27 billion in 2015 to N1.90 trillion in 2021. Hence, it is difficult to understand whether the Federal Government intends to address urgent issues of poor service delivery and sub-optimal infrastructure relative to the nation’s population.”

    “It stands to reason that the country’s population growth rate has not abated and, as such, has not been met with concerted spending. BudgIT and the World Bank have written and provided analysis elsewhere about the growth in recurrent debt and, to a large extent, recurrent non-debt expenditure, over and above the spending on capital expenditure. While it has been argued that Nigeria may not be spending enough on its public services relative to its size, this argument must also consider the corollary of spending on citizens. The administration of Bola Tinubu must ensure that the budget is drawn up with the interest of the people in mind,” BudgIT stated.

    Experts also cautioned against what they described as open contempt of the federal budget by state owned enterprises (SOEs), noting that the federal budget is the primary document in which budgets of SOEs ought to be published.

    They noted that budgets of several SOEs are omitted from the federal budget, an anomaly that has persisted for years.

    Experts pointed out that budgeting over the years has been gender unintentional; arguing that for a country striving towards achieving development goals, gender equity is a cross-cutting factor influencing each of the 17 sustainable development goals (SDGs) and can only be achieved through gender-responsive governance and gender-responsive budgeting (GRB).

    According to analysts, GRB  implies that across all MDAs, budget allocation is disaggregated to address the various needs specific to women, men, and persons with disabilities, and line items are disaggregated by sex, age distribution, and special needs such as for men, women, children, elderly, and persons with disability.

    They said such level of detail is not only pivotal for fostering gender equity but also it ensures a level of transparency and accountability in budgeting process.

    They called for a strong stance against ‘budget padding’ noting that eliminating budget padding from Nigeria’s budget is crucial for the country’s development and the integrity of the administration.

    “Over the years, budget padding has synced deep into the country’s budgetary process, and as such, unethically exaggerated expenses or allocations have resulted in resource misallocation, wastage, and a decline in public confidence. With our assessment of the last three Appropriation Bills and Acts of the 2021 and 2022 financial years, we’ve been able to outline the unruly insertions of over N1.8 trillion by the National Assembly during this timeline.  

    “Dealing with these issues is crucial in the Nigerian setting for many reasons. Eliminating budget padding will also guarantee effective resource allocation. Every naira would be utilised for worthwhile projects in a country like Nigeria that is struggling with development issues. Resources are diverted from vital sectors due to padding waste, limiting Nigeria’s economic growth chances.

    “Budget padding frequently encourages theft and fraud, maintaining a corrupt culture. By doing away with padding, Nigeria is clearly demonstrating its commitment to combating corruption at all levels. To do this, the presidency must prioritise open budgeting procedures, impartial audits, whistleblower protection, and improved legal frameworks. The nation may usher in a new era of accountable governance, efficient resource utilisation, and a stronger framework for sustainable development through these measures,” BudgIT stated.

    The policy document called for discontinuation of the practice of assigning projects to MDAs without the mandate to implement them.

    According to experts, over the years, Nigeria’s budget has witnessed the allocation of projects to agencies outside the scope of their authority, which often leads to the majority of the projects not being completed.

    They said misallocated MDAs often lack the knowledge and personnel to guarantee the provision of quality services for these projects, which results in the under-delivery of the projects and a massive waste of taxpayer funds and limited resources.

    “Allocating limited resources to institutions to carry out projects that are obviously outside of their purview not only competes with spending on the institutions’ core functions but also runs counter to the objectives and mandate given to each MDA, which are geared towards achieving the objectives outlined in the country’s development plan.

    “A prime example in the 2023 budget is where Federal Polytechnic Ukana, Akwa Ibom, was assigned the responsibility of supplying and fixing street lights in Kiru/Bebeji Federal Constituency in Kano State. Funds are rarely used for these projects and are frequently misdirected or not even released. Since the budget’s intended releases were not made by not paying out to these so-called projects outside the purview of MDAs, this would result in subpar budget performance,” BudgIT stated.

    BudgIT also called for end to delayed budget cycle with a view to strengthening accountability and transparency through timeliness.

    Experts noted that the Nigerian budgetary cycle is incomplete without the budget implementation report, an accountability and transparency tool that is used to track the effective management of public funds.

    “Timeliness is everything, as delaying may limit citizen engagement and participation; Nigeria’s Fiscal Responsibility Act provides for timely disclosure and wide publication of public revenues and expenditures. The Bola Tinubu administration should consider the timely delivery of the budget implementation report while taking deliberate actions to reduce the trust gap in the nation. Policies should be put in place to ensure minimal setbacks by creating a standardised budgetary calendar and allowing proactive interventions and corrective actions where necessary,” BudgIT stated.

    Experts also called for institutionalization of proper monitoring and evaluation pointing out that over 50,000 public projects have been abandoned in Nigeria due to weak monitoring and evaluation systems.

    “The performance of the Nigerian budget can be properly measured and improved using robust monitoring and evaluation methods. Regular and publicly available monitoring and evaluation reports should serve as a tool to provide data-driven evidence of budget programs. This is to show what works and what doesn’t so policymakers can use this knowledge to make informed decisions about project continuation, growth, or alteration. This is to reduce the number of abandoned projects in the nation ultimately.

    “The government hasn’t been able to do an excellent job of monitoring and evaluation as the units that carry out this function have been underfunded and under-utilised, while their reports are usually ignored in the processes of budget allocation and program prioritisation. The government should ensure its current monitoring and evaluation framework is backed by law to increase accountability and openness in administering the nation’s infrastructure projects,” the report stated.

  • N8.9tr budget of hope

    Last week, the National Assembly passed the Federal Government’s N8.9 trillion 2019 Appropriation Bill into law. The exercise was concluded in record time, considering that May 6 was the earliest time the budget had been passed in the President Muhammadu Buhari administration. Budget deliberations were also less contentious than in the past three years when the executive and legislature had a fractious relationship. But the budget passage is the least of stakeholders’ worries, as the bulk of its success lies in implementation, writes COLLINS NWEZE.

    Nigerians should be optimistic of getting the best out of the N8.9 trillion 2019 budget passed last week by the  National Assembly.

    But if the speed at which the budget was passed was the only ground for such optimism, then there is need for a rethink.

    For instance, the National Assembly increased the budget by N86 billion from the proposed N8.8 trillion.

    However, the projected revenue at N7 trillion and all budget assumptions were unchanged.

    Report from Afrinvest West Africa showed that the oil price assumption was kept at $60/barrel, which  it believes is conservative, as Brent crude oil price has  increased due to moderating oil supply. No thanks to Iran sanctions and Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) output cuts, which have brought the average daily oil price to $63.5/b as at this month.

    “The oil production assumption of 2.3mb/d is ambitious as we expect 2.1mb/d in 2019 and the official exchange rate of N305/$ was kept, consistent with the CBN’s stance. These assumptions translate to a projected oil revenue of N3.7 trillion as against (N3 trillion in 2018), which we believe is unrealisable due to the repayment of cash call arrears, petrol subsidies and the prospect of lower than expected oil production.The projected non-oil revenue was unchanged at N1.4 trillion in 2019, reflecting a more measured expectation,” the report said.

    The Afrinvest report explained that the largest share of non-oil revenue at 57.7 per cent is expected to be generated from Companies Income Tax (CIT) while 21.8 per cent and 16.6 per cent are to be collected through Customs and Excise Duties and Value Added Tax. Meanwhile, independent revenue is projected lower at N624.6 billion lower than 2018’s N848 billion.

    “While this shows that the Federal Government is finally being realistic, we expect this to be below projections.Overall, considering that the Federal Government collected an estimated N3.7 trillion in 2018, we expect sustained underperformance in revenue by as much as 41.2 per cent in 2019,” analysts at Afrinvest said.   In the year, total recurrent expenditure is projected at N6.9 trillion, crowding out capital spending, which is 30 per cent of total spending.

    The recurrent expenditure is split between non-debt and debt at 67.4 per cent and 32.6 per cent. An estimated 63 per cent of non-debt recurrent expenditure is to be spent on Federal Government’s payroll, which is likely to rapidly expand by 2020 when adjustments are made to reflect the recently-passed minimum wage of N30,000 per month.

    The non-debt component of spending, also known as debt servicing, at N2.3 trillion seems moderate at 32.1 per cent of projected revenue.

    However, considering that the estimated revenue of N4.1  trillion in the year, projected debt servicing is elevated at 54.9 per cent of revenue. Finally, the total recurrent expenditure to 2019 revenue estimate is 168.3 per cent, suggesting that Federal Government’s fiscal position is untenable.

    “While the Federal Government’s projects fiscal deficit at N1.9 trillion or 1.4 per cent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), our estimates of N4.8 trillion and 3.4 per cent shows that this is likely to be worse than expected. The implication of a much wider fiscal deficit would be both higher than expected borrowing and partial implementation of the already poor capital spending,” the report added.

  • Akwa Ibom Assembly passes N672b budget for 2019

    The Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly has passed the 2019 “Budget of Industrialisation and Poverty Alleviation” into law. The budget has a total outlay of N672,984,760,760.

    The House also passed the Akwa Ibom Youth Development Fund Bill into law.

    The Speaker, Onofiok Luke, said the budget was an economic transition proposal which will support the completion agenda of the Governor Udom Emmanuel-led administration.

    He said: “While this is the last budget that we have the privilege to legislate on as the sixth assembly, it stands as the pioneer economic blueprint for the proposed Completion Agenda of the next four years.

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    “As a legislature, we have reviewed the key components of the appropriation law, weighing them against the policy objectives which leverage the short and long term development ambitions of government.

    “To meet salient socio-economic agenda of government, which includes infrastructural development, job creation, and revenue generation, the budget size was increased by a little over N2 billion.

    “Our overall objective is to ensure priority is given to areas of immediate importance to the people while we pursue the larger goal of full-scale industrialisation.”

  • How budget delay is affecting economy

    With the hope of the passage of the national budget still uncertain, stakeholders worry this may have a rippled negative effect on the economy, reports Ibrahim Apekhade Yusuf and Medinat Kanabe

    No doubt there has been a long wait for the passage of the national budget. But for how much longer the wait would be is what many stakeholders are worried about.

    One such stakeholder who has raised his voice above the din is the top echelons of the Chartered Institute Bankers of Nigeria (CIBN), Dr. Uche Olowu.

    At a public forum recently, he decried the incessant delay in the passage of the national budget, saying it impacts negatively on national productivity even as he called on the Federal Government and the National Assembly to close ranks in order to release the budget on time.

    According to CIBN President, there was need for a new approach to the nation’s budget. “The country needs to rethink its strategy of handling some of its economic activities. For instance, according to the African Development Bank, ADB, Nigeria needs to re-orient its federal budget currently dominated by recurrent spending towards more capital expenditure and accumulating savings to sustain social spending.

    “Besides, delays in budget approval and signing have become predominant that it is not available for implementation in most cases in the first quarter and rare cases a better part of the second quarter over the past 15 years. Incidentally, this year is not an exception. This has led to uncertainty in the system, affecting the delivery of projects which has profound impact on productivity in the economy. I, therefore, wish to implore the executive and legislative arms of government to close ranks to release the budget on time,” Olowu said.

    Budget 2019

    President Muhammadu Buhari presented the 2019 budget to joint session of the two chambers proposed a total of N8.83 trillion last month.

    Budget parameters

    Details of the proposed budget showed that it was based on crude oil benchmark price of $60 per barrel of oil and 2.3 million barrels per day. The budget is further predicated on an exchange rate of N305 to $1, a real Gross Domestic Growth of 3.01 per cent and inflation rate of 9.98 per cent.

    The proposed budget shows that about a quarter of the sum (N2.14 trillion) will be used for debt servicing while capital expenditure is expected to gulp N2.031 trillion.

    Further breakdown presented by the president shows that proposed recurrent expenditure is N4.04 trillion, statutory transfer is N492.36 billion, there is a sinking fund of N120 billion, while capital expenditure is N2.031 trillion.

    Mixed reactions trail 2019 budget proposal

    Apparently wary of the performance of the previous budget, a lot of stakeholders have expressed concern that the 2019 budget need to address a lot of grey areas.

    Firing the first salvo, the Director General of the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) Muda Yusuf in a statement made available to The Nation while noting that the latest Gross Domestic Product (GDP) statistic released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) shows that the Nigerian economy grew by 1.81% year-on-year in the third quarter of 2018 amongst others, he observed that  this performance is lower than the LCCI, IMF and Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP) growth forecasts of 3.5&, 2.1% and 4.1% respectively for 2018.

    The managing director of Cowry Asset Management Limited, Johnson Chukwu, on his part, said the projected revenue from crude oil, based on production and price, was cause for worry.

    “I think the oil price benchmark is too optimistic. We have never reached 2.3 million barrels per day production in the last four years. And now, the oil cartel has cut production level. If you cannot achieve your revenue projection, it becomes difficult to carry out capital expenditure plans. We would surely overshoot our deficit projections again and as usual, we would borrow more.”

    In the view of Gabriel Ikese, a public affairs commentator, “Presenting the 2019 budget proposals in December should not be an excuse to delay the passing of the bill within reasonable time. 2017 and 2018 budgets were presented November, fairly reasonable time frame but still lingered for over 5 months at the National Assembly.”

    Members of the legislature, he stressed, “should be patriotic enough to put aside personal interests and frivolous allegations from any quarters for the overriding national interest in passing the budget expeditiously. With commitment and adequate capacity, the budget can be passed in 30 working days.”

    The 2019 budget proposal should be expeditiously considered and passed in record time as a test of integrity and attestation of a responsible legislature. This would change the negative perception of lawmakers and the hallowed institution of the National Assembly.

    Also speaking in an interview with The Nation, Sola Fijabi, Managing Director/CEO, Brookes and Blakes, a media relations company with expertise in the emerging economies, said the sign at the macroeconomic level hardly shows any promising except in the microeconomic levels.

    Worries over budget delay

    In the view of Prof. Sheriffdeen Tella, Professor of Economics, Olabisi Onabanjo University Ago-Iwoye, Ogun, “The delay in budget approval in the last two years has affected the growth of the economy because such delay will not allow for the implementation of the capital part if the budget to a large extent and the implementation of capital budget is what engineers growth in every economy.”

    Pressed further, he said, “The delay is very bad and it has been affecting the economy in the last three or four years because in the last three or four years budget has not being passed earlier than May or June which is very bad for the economy so the current delay will also bring about the same thing.

    “The last report states that the economy grew in the last quarter of the year but in the first two quarters of the year there was no such growth, when you have that kind of situation it means that if the budget is not passed in time; that growth that we witnessed in the last quarter of the rest will start growing down by the first, second quarter of the year so if the budget is passed in time definitely that growth will continue and it will help us to get out of the economy problem that we are in now.”

    According to him, “The problem is not with the government but the legislature, the government has submitted the document but also the government didn’t send it to the nearly 2017 the government submitted the budget early enough on October 7 but was not passed. Now the government submitted late but it is not good for the legislature to delay especially because of the period that we are in. The election period; they ought to have done everything before they embark on a full scale politicking. So now that that has happened one will implore them that as soon as they come back, they should not focus on the out one of the election anymore but on how to pass the budget in time so that the economy will continue go forward.”

    The university, who reiterated that the perennial delays in passing yearly budgets showed that the legislature was ignorant of its responsibility, said, the early passage of the budget would promote economic growth and development.

    “The Nigerian economy depends on government’s budget to function properly. The private sector particularly needs to see government direction to plan and execute their plans. Early passage of budget helps in this regard. The private sector is the major participant in the capital market.

    “Growth enhancing activities in the capital market are negatively affected by the delay in passing the budget,” Tella said.

    He noted that passing the federal budget in good time was capable of promoting economic growth, assisting private sector for optimal business performance as well as energising money and capital market activities.

    Tella explained that early budget passage would promote planning in the lower levels of governments and the private sector.

    In the assertion of Prof. Leo Ukpong of University of Uyo, “It is bad for the economy. One, it sends a bad signal to investors in terms of expenditure. Projects that are approved or expected to be involved in, when they delay the budget that means those budgets will also be delayed. In terms of expenditure activities, that will also delay.”

    The second major problem, he stressed, “Is in terms of uncertainty, it creates fear because we don’t even know when they will approve it so those who want to invest and those who have contracts, all those things will slow down. The question is not whether it will be bad for them economy the question should be how long the budget will be delayed? We do you know because right now we are in election cycle and right now most of the focus right now is on election so this may throw things up for about two to three months. I hope it is not that long, before they will focus on the budget. We don’t know who is coming in and no party will like to pass a budget when you are not sure your re going to be there so generally, we are going to see a drop in a lot of activities, we are going to see a drop in stock market especially the foreign investors hold back and those are all negative feedbacks of negative effect of the delayed budget.”

    Like Tella, Ukpong argues that “Constitutionally budget should be passed one year before the next fiscal year so that we don’t have any problem. Unfortunately that is in our constitution and it is the right thing because it is like saying I should pass a budget for what I will do next year so that the budget is approved and then the allocation in terms of payment can start taking place. I think every other country that is what they do. They make sure that one year ahead budget is on ground so that have start fighting for the other year at least we have money on ground to keep the government going if you follow USA you will see that they shut down the government for about three weeks because there was a budget fight between the parties.”

    On the forward, Ukpong, who has expertise in Economics, Energy Economics, Monetary Economics, advises that the constitution need to be strengthened. “The presidency as the executive must do everything to make sure that the budget is approved one year before we start reading other expenditure so that it doesn’t completely throw us off. Right now we are hoping that they will finish election and focus on budget.”

    Mr. Sola Oni, a chartered stockbroker and Chief Executive Officer, Sofunix Investment and Communications, said delay in the passage of the budget was highly injurious to economic growth and development.

    “This enables them to advise their clients on taking positions and reviewing their portfolios accordingly.

    “At macro level, early passage of the budget implies prompt implementation of capital projects. This is critical to the growth of the economy as it has impact on growing the Gross Domestic Products (GDP),” Oni said.

    Light at the end of the tunnel

    In the view of Zainab Ahmed, Finance Minister, Nigeria recorded the highest capital spending in history under the present government led by President Muhammadu Buhari. She was optimistic that the 2019 budget would achieve its set objective.

    “You see, that’s the thing we can’t dictate to the National Assembly – how they do their work. In the process of budget preparation the Ministry of Budget and National Planning meets with every MDAs to defend their budget before us and then we collate that budget and submit to the National Assembly. We simply cannot decide or dictate to NASS how they handle the budget process or any of their processes for that matter. They are a different organ of government. It’s just like saying the judiciary and the executive is trying to determination how they take cases in court you can’t do that.”

  • Lagos Assembly summons Ambode over budget

    The Lagos State House of Assembly yesterday urged Governor Akinwunmi Ambode to appear before it within one week on the controversy concerning this year’s budget.

    The year’s Appropriation Bill has not been presented to the lawmakers, causing hot disagreement between the Executive and the Legislature.

    Last month, the governor sent the budget to the Assembly against the tradition of laying it before the Assembly.

    Speaker Mudashiru Obasa told his colleagues at yesterday’s plenary that it was important to give the governor a fair hearing on the budget.

    The Speaker recalled that there had been violations of the Constitution and alleged infractions by the governor.

    He said: “The Attorney General, the Finance Commissioner and Commissioner for Budget and Economic Planning, who ought to have advised the governor did not do so.

    “The most important thing is that we should let the people know that a budget that was yet to be approved was being spent. This was why we could not attend to the governor on the budget on January 21.

    “We must give them a fair hearing to come and explain what happened. The point has been made that there must be something before the Assembly before you can commence expenditure. We want to call on the governor to come within a week to explain himself along with the other officials.

    “We can start gathering signatures for impeachment. We can exercise patience and wait till another time.”

    The lawmakers were reacting to a report presented by Deputy Speaker Wasiu Eshinlokun-Sanni as the Chairman of the committee set up to examine issues surrounding the 2019 budget at a parliamentary meeting of the lawmakers.

    Members of the Committee included the Chairman of the House Committee on Public Accounts (State), Moshood Oshun; the Chairman of the House Committee on Budget and Economic Planning, Gbolahan Yishawu; the Chairman of the House Committee on the Environment, Dayo Saka-Fafunmi and the Chairman of the House Committee on Works and Infrastructure, Abiodun Tobun.

    Eshinlokun said the committee met with relevant commissioners and heads of agencies, including the Commissioner for Budget and Economic Planning, Segun Banjo, who said no money had been spent in this year’s budget.

    The lawmaker said the Accountant General told the committee that a warrant had been issued that they could spend up to 25 per cent of the preceding year’s budget before the approval of the new year’s appropriation.

    He said they would liaise with the Assembly if they wanted to spend up to N200 million.

    Eshinlokun said: “We pointed out that the governor ought to lay the budget of the New Year before December 31, but that so far the budget was yet to be laid.

    “We asked them to bring out the law that allows them to spend up to 25 per cent of the budget of the preceding year. They could not bring out such a law and we said what they did was wrong.

    “We discovered that people had started receiving alerts and this has a grave implication for the Executive.

    “It is our finding that for smooth running of the government, there must be a strict adherent to the constitution, and it must not be violated.

    “We decided to bring the report before the lawmakers for us to take action.”

    Yishawu said the Committee on Budget discovered during the budget review that there was specific expenditure that should have been approved by the Assembly on which funds were expended.

    The lawmaker averred that these were misnomers, and that the Assembly noticed variation in the expenditure and budget approved.

    “We had issues of virement and funds being spent without approval. We had cases of items that were not budgeted for being carried out. It shows the executive rewrite the budget at will.

    “The Constitution states that the House of Assembly must approve all expenditures,” he added.

    Most of the lawmakers expressed surprise and worry about the development.

    They stressed that the governor and members of the State Executive Council (Exco) were committing glaring constitutional breaches which might lead to serious consequences.

    According to them, things are shutting down in the state through the action of the Executive.

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    Other lawmakers who contributed to the issue included Tunde Braimoh, Rotimi Olowo, Moshood Oshun, Richard Kasunmu, Rasheed Makinde, Yinka Ogundimu, Sola Giwa and Victor Akande.

    Others are: Fatai Mojeed, Jude Idimogu, Noheem Raheem, Fatai Oluwa, Oladele Adekanye, Sabur Olayiwola, Akeem Shokunle and Mosunmola Sangodara.

    Funmilayo Tejuosho, Setonji David, Dayo Saka-Fafunmi, Mojisola Miranda, Dayo Famakinwa, Saka Solaja, Lanre Ogunyemi and Folajinmi Mohammed expressed dismay at the development.

    Omotayo Oduntan (Deputy Whip) “Today is a sad day. The executive just moved money from one ministry to another without recourse to the Assembly. When all these happen, it shows a total disregard to the budget being passed by the House. We should get across to the Governor to explain himself or else we should begin an impeachment process.

    But Majority Leader Sanai Agunbiade said: “There are three arms of government of which the Executive is one. Our government is still running and not shut down. What we want to do is to ensure that the infraction from one arm of government does not affect another.

    “It is clear that the budget has not been presented before the Assembly. My colleagues have addressed all the issues. We should let the public know that we do not have the budget before the Assembly.”

    The lawmakers made three suggestions.

    The first is that the commissioners, who were approved by the Assembly and are working with the governor would have a vote of no confidence passed on them because they have allegedly failed in their responsibilities.

    The next is for the governor to resign or the Assembly should begin an impeachment process against him.

    “We can communicate to him to reign or failure to do that is for us to start collecting signatures of lawmakers so that we can be seeing to have done our job,” Agunbiade said.

    Chief Whip Rotimi Abiru said: “I want to adopt what has been done without wasting much time. There have been some infractions on the part of the governor and the position of the law is clear.”

    Deputy Majority Leader Wahab Jimoh said: “I saw this coming like an ocean surge. The Attorney General wrote the House to withdraw the private member bills before the House. I had been noticing that there would be a crisis. The report I saw with the Deputy Speaker shows that the 2019 budget is being implemented.

  • Budget, minimum wage and other matters

    Considering that the current budget cycle terminates in June – by which time a new administration is expected to have been in place – a friend had casually sought my opinion on the portents of Budget 2019. With the electoral season already overshadowing every other matter of governance, why not – he had reasoned – spare the country of the potential recriminations over a budget that seems more like an article of faith than a practical working document?

    His argument was simple: this out-going assembly will neither have the presence of mind to do a thorough job on the proposals nor could they be trusted not to weaponise the sacred document.

    More troubling – he said – are the parameters of Budget 2019 as enunciated by the executive. To  my friend, a N8.73 trillion expenditure outlay – a figure N400 billion lower than the 2018 budget – might seem modest given the circumstance in which the nation has found itself. That however is as far as things go. All other things from the parameters of the budget to the assumptions that underlie them are merely an explication of the age-long wishes and fantasies that have made the annual exercise a beautiful farce!

    I understood his point – or tried to – our only point of divergence being his conclusion that Budget 2019 may well be Dead Before Arrival (DBA)!Not necessarily – I had argued for as sure as hell, the recurrent expenses will be fully executed in addition to those invisible items best described as pork.

    Overall, I agreed that the omens are not good. A budget benchmark of $60 per barrel at this time? Or worse – an oil production of 2.3 million barrels per day – and wait for it – a projected GDP growth rate of 3.01% on our antediluvian infrastructure at a time of falling oil prices?

    A look at the global picture will certainly help to put things in better context. Barely two weeks to the budget presentation, the tiny Arab country of Qatar, announced its decision to end its 57 years of membership of the oil producing cartel – the Organization of the Oil Exporting Countries (OPEC) this month.That the announcement was not considered earth-shaking is probably on account of the fact that the country ranks 11th on the producer cartel with output at 600,000 barrels of oil per day, a mere six percentof the cartel’s output. By the way, Saudi Arabia, its arch-enemy which only in June 2017imposed an economic blockade on it has since hit record of 11 million bpd output. What that exit means in a world where one man called Donald Trump not only seeks to make America great at everyone’s expense but who in his self-assigned role of global disrupter-in-chief has long signalled that the power of OPEC is gone for good can only be imagined. In other words, the days of the producer cartel are numbered.  And this, soon after global oil prices began the latest downward spiral. The development should be troubling enough for our policy makers.

    Price is however one of the two legs of the budget equation; the other, production is just as problematic. Only last year, production is said to have averaged 1.9 million  barrels per day– which in our current circumstances seems just fine. Now, the government thinks that it can – by some magic – ramp up production by 400,000 barrels a day. Soon, it will be time to summon citizens to do what they do when faced with situations that are predictable: pray, only to be required to pray more when the projects set out in the budget are undeliverable!

    But then, the shape of Budget 2019 and how to fund it would seem the least of our troubles. Not with labour spoiling for a long-drawn battle over the minimum wage. Interestingly, labour, employers and government actually agree that the current minimum wage is slave wage. The knotty problem is what to pay – and if you like – the sustainability of what is on offer. We have certainly seen enough of the troubling statistics about the implications of paying the new proposal on the treasuries of states. However, in an environment where governors are known to draw hundreds of millions of naira in security votes, a convincing argument on how a worker can survive on less than $80 a month is yet to be made.

    That is far from denying the reality of the challenge that will be posed by the adoption of the new wage structure. As I noted on the subject on short while ago, the lessons of the last eight years should be clear enough: it is one thing is to have a minimum wage on paper; the ability to pay is another matter. To this, we may add the inflationary spirals that will surely be generated considering that majority of Nigerians are not wage earning, the impact on the private sector already reeling from the terrible effects of  inclement policies – all of these in a country where productivity is at a nadir.

    Much as I hate to say this at this time, the reality is that states are simply in no position to fund any appreciable increases in wage bills without substantial adjustments to the revenue allocation formula! Why our national lawmakers have not thought about this continues to beat me! By the way, the last time I checked, the piggy bank – Excess Crude has been depleted which means that the era of the federal government playing the Santa Claus may well be over too!

    The big elephant in the room however is fuel subsidy. Whereas most Nigerians would consider it tolerable, the recurring N305 billion voted to appease the god of petrol subsidy remains one slow killer that Nigeria should no longer tolerate – not in 2019 or ever after!

    Here is what President Muhammadu Buhari said of the N305 billion earmarked for the subsidy which he called under-recovery in his budget presentation: “In a period of economic challenges where purchasing power is weak, we must reduce some of the burden on Nigerians”.

    Really?I agree on the need to lighten some of the current burdens that Nigerians are forced to carry. Fuel subsidy is unfortunately one of the needless burdens forced on the treasury. In any event, where is the plan to bring the annual haemorrhage to an end – now that Dangote Refineries will no longer be coming on stream until 2022?

  • Buhari to present minimum wage bill to NASS

    President Muhammadu Buhari says a bill on implementation of the New Minimum Wage would soon be sent to the National Assembly for passage.

    Buhari made this known while presenting the 2019 Budget before the joint session of the National Assembly on Wednesday.

    He assured the house that he was committed to addressing the minimum wage issue, saying he had directed the setting up of a technical committee to look at mode of implementation.

    “To avoid a system crisis on the Federal Government and states, it is important to device ways to ensure that its implementation does not lead to an increase in the level of borrowing.

    “I am accordingly setting up a high powered technical committee to advice on ways of funding an increase in the minimum wage and attendant wage adjustments without having to resort to additional borrowing.

    “The work of the committee will be the basis of finance bill which will be submitted to the national assembly alongside the minimum wage bill.

    Read More: Presidency: Controversy over minimum wage unnecessary

    Buhari, said the committee would recommend modalities for the implementation of the new minimum wage.
    According to him, the move is to minimize inflationary impact as well as ensure that its introduction does not lead to job losses.

    The Nation recalls that the Amal Pepple Tripartite Committee on the Review of National Minimum Wage, had on Nov. 6, submitted its report to Buhari.

    The committee recommended N30, 000 as the new national minimum wage.

  • NASS joint committee meets again over INEC 2019 budget

    The National Assembly joint Committee on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) will meet on Monday to further consider INEC budget for 2019 elections.

    The meeting is coming against the backdrop of growing anxiety over which of the budget proposals the joint committee will endorse for the elections.

    The joint committee had announced through its Chairman, Senator Suleiman Nazif, that it will meet  to decide which of the two budget proposals, the N143billion President Muhammadu Buhari requested for in a letter sent to the National Assembly and the N189billion INEC is asking for, will be approved.

    President Buhari had in the letter to the National Assembly said that out of the N189bn INEC budgeted for the conduct of 2019 elections, N143bn should be approved this year through virement from the N578bn additional votes members of the National Assembly inserted in the budget , while the balance of N45.6bn would be captured for INEC in the 2019 budget.

    INEC officials at two different appearances before the joint committee insisted that the entire N189billion should be approved for it for the smooth conduct of the 2019 elections.

    This led to sharp division among members of the committee across party lines as they failed to agree on which of the requests to be approved.

    The Committee chairman said in the statement: “Sequel to the ongoing consideration of the Independent National Electoral Commission, 2019 General Election Budget by the joint committees of the Senate and House of Representatives, the general public is hereby informed that work on the budget is in advanced stage and in line with mandate issued to the joint committee by the leadership of the National Assembly.

    “Equally the Joint Committee deliberated on all key attributes of the budget while taking into cognizance the imperative urgency for the budget to be ready in time for the 2019 general election hence, necessitating sacrifice and selflessness from our distinguished and honourable members.

    “Furthermore, it is imperative to state here explicitly that, after  audacious sessions with all critical stakeholders the joint committee dissolved into executive structure and agreed to resume on 27th August, 2018, (after Sallah) to consider the harmonized version of the budget report diligently.

    “More so the report of the joint committee will be made available for further and appropriate legislative action in earnest”.

    The committee at its last session on the budget which had the Minister of Budget and National Planning, Udoma Udo Udoma and INEC Chairman, Prof Mahmood Yakubu in attendance, could not resolve which of the requests to approve.

    While members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the committee supported the approval of N143bn requested by President Buhari in his letter, their colleagues in the All Progressives Congress (APC) backed the approval of the N189 billion INEC asked for.

    The position of the Minister of Budget and National Planning that the committee should use its discretion on matter did not help the issue.

    The Minister who was asked for authorization for the approval from President Buhari, noted that N189bn requested by INEC was the same amount the President wrote in the letter to the National Assembly.

    The Minister said that because of funding constraints, President Buhari decided to break approval for it into two fold by seeking virement for N143bn for INEC this year while the balance of N45.6billion would be taken care of in the 2019 budget .

    He said “Mr. President will have no objection to the National Assembly approving the entire N189billion INEC budget as long as it does not in anyway, lead to increase in the overall size of the 2018 budget .

    “If this is to be done, the N45.6billion the President in his letter proposed to be provided in the 2019 budget would also have to be vired along with the N143bn from the N578bn fund appropriated in the 2018 budget by the National Assembly for the additional 1,403 projects included in the budget.

    “Discretion on which of the requests to be approved by you now, is yours. If you approve the N143bn the President requested it is okay and if you approve the entire N189billion for INEC this year is also alright.

    “Any of the two is okay for the executive, except that if you approve the N189billion through virement, the N45.6 billion planned to be captured in the 2019 budget , would no longer be part of the budget estimates for that year.”

     

  • House to reconvene next week for budget

    •Buhari not involved in National Assembly blockade, says APC Caucus

    THE National Assembly will reconvene next week to consider the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) budget and the supplementary budget forwarded to it by President Muhammadu Buhari, the All Progressives Congress (APC) caucus said yesterday.

    House Leader Femi Gbajabiamila and Deputy Speaker Yussuff Lasun led the lawmakers to a meeting, where they also declared that Buhari had no hand in Tuesday’s invasion of the National Assembly by Department of State Service (DSS) operatives.

    They called for full investigation to unravel those behind the act. The Caucus said Buhari is the candidate of all APC lawmakers.

    On the request of the executive for the consideration of the INEC budget, Lasun said: “The Executive has proposed a virement on which INEC has taken a front-burner and so, we met yesterday (Wednesday). Some leader of the National Assembly met yesterday with the INEC Chairman and we have decided we’re likely to reconvene either on Tuesday or on Wednesday to specifically consider that request.”

    Gbajabiamila said: “This institution was shut down by men, and I guess, women of the DSS. Since then, there had been several, should I call them spins, stories on whether it was orchestrated or whether the party had anything to do with it or whether the President had anything to do with it. Stories have been flying right, left, centre.

    “There are certain facts that are indisputable and unassailable. One is the fact that the DSS came into the National Assembly and shut this place down. Two, that there were allegations that APC senators were inside the chambers ostensibly to impeach the Senate President. Three,  that the APC members only were allowed to come into NASS.”

    He said it was also a fact that the DSS DG was summarily fired by the Presidency.

    “And I think what these facts point to is that we all stand together to defend our democracy. Nobody here would accept what happened a few days ago. But, we want to appeal to everybody, particularly to our PDP colleagues, that they shouldn’t use this as an opportunity to malign the party or the President.

    “The President, we know from facts, was not aware of what happened. The moment he heard, he took the right decisions. So, we will be calling for thorough investigations. There are many questions unanswered, and many have raised those questions. How come those APC senators were not there? So many questions that need to be answered.

    “And for that reason, I believe we should tarry awhile and allow the investigations to be concluded so that we know exactly what happened, who did what, who knew what and when exactly did they do it? I believe that is the most important issue that needs to be addressed now.”

    Lasun added that since June 2015, the APC had maintained its majority status in both chambers of the National Assembly.

    ” As a Caucus, we’re one and we’re with our President Muhammadu Buhari, and we’re even with him with the decisions and actions both the President and Acting President have taken in the last few days.

    “I want to enjoin the public to still see APC as the party of choice. We have done our best to right the wrongs of the past administration. We are here as a caucus to condemn what happened some few days back and also commend the government for the actions taken on the DSS Director General.

    Lasun said no other group could represent the caucus better.

    “What we know in the House of Representatives is the APC Caucus. So, no other group can represent our objectives.

    “As long as my colleagues and I standing in front of you this evening are members of APC, nobody can represent us and all of us are for Buhari. As at today, the party in principle has agreed that Buhari is going to be our candidate in 2019.

    “I said in principle because when the date of the primary is finally announced, were all going there to approve Buhari as a consensus candidate,” the Deputy Speaker said.

     

     

     

  • Protesters at National Assembly kick against cut of budget

    •Senators dismiss them as ‘hired guns’ •Group slams them

    A group of Nigerians yesterday staged a protest in front of the the National Asembly complex in Abuja over the cuts in the 2018 budget by the federal lawmakers.

    The protesters under the aegis of National Convener of Citizens’ Action to take back Nigeria (CATBAN) called for the resigmation of Senate President Bukola Saraki and House of Representatives Speaker Yakubu Dogara

    They stormed the National Assembly Complex in various vehicles and displayed banners, calling for scrapping of constituency projects.

    Some of the placards have inscriptions like: “Nigerians are not represented in the sharing of loots via constituency projects”, “Dear legislators, to make laws is not to execute projects, legislators are not executives.”

    National Convener of the group Comrade Garba Wala told repprters that lawmakers were using constituency projects to siphon funds meant for Nigerians.

    Wala said the concerns raised by President Muhammadu Buhari while signing the 2018 Budget, showed that the National Assembly was “stealing the common patrimony of the people through constituency projects.”

    According to him, the concerns are indications that Saraki and Dogara lacked credibility and moral capacity, as such should resign.

    “The President told Nigerians that our Federal legislators connived among themselves and removed priority developmental projects carefully prepared by the Federal Government to impact on the lives of the citizenry.

    “The National Assembly made cut of N347 billion in the allocations to 4,700 projects submitted to them for consideration and introduced 6, 403 private projects of their own amounting to N578 billion.

    “ As a Civil Society Organisation, we feel pained that this year’s budget followed the regular path of stealing in the guise of bogus constituency projects.

    “In spite of the wishy-washy response of the National Assembly justifying its distortion of the 2018 Budget, there is ample evidence to show that they shortchanged their constituents who elected them to make laws for the good governance of the country,” he said.

    He expressed concern that, “with an additional sum of N170 billion for Constituency Projects, together with the sum of N100 billion already provided for in the Budget,  the National Assembly still went ahead to cut allocations to important national projects.

    “The cut was aimed at distorting the budget in order to further increase their allocation for constituency projects.

    “This to us is a grave offence against the sensibilities of Nigerians.”

    The convener said, “this is one big scandal that brings to light how the nation’s annual budgets have been padded over the years to the disadvantage of 180 million Nigerians.”

    EFCC, ICPC should probe

    He called on the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC) to investigate the matter.

    He stressed that it was necessary for such action to be taken to save the National Assembly from public ridicule.

    The News Agency of Nigeria(NAN) reports that the protest turned rowdy when protesters became impatient following concerns that the leadership of the National Assembly did not deem it fit to address them.

    Some of the protesters were seen trying to climb the main gate, while others were seen shaking the gate vigorously to force their way into the premises.

    They were however stopped when Police officers manning the gate, released teargas into the air.

    While signing the 2018 Budget, the President said: “the logic behind the Constitutional directive that budgets should be proposed by the Executive is that it is the Executive that knows and defines its policies and projects.

    “Unfortunately, that has not been given much regard in what has been sent to me.

    “The National Assembly made cuts amounting to N347 billion in the allocations to 4,700 projects submitted to them for consideration and introduced 6,403 projects of their own amounting to N578 billion.

    ‘Hired guns’

    Senators dismissed the protest during plenary, describing the protesters as “hired guns, lacking the knowledge of the workings of the National Assembly.”

    Senator Barnabas Gemade drew the attention of his colleagues to the constituency project protest through a point of order.

    The Benue North East senator described the protesters as ignorant of how the parliament operates.

    Genade insisted that no amount of blackmail or intimidation would stop the National Assembly from allocating funds for constituency projects.

    He lamented that unlike heads of ministries, departments and agencies, senators “go cap in hand to beg ministers to fund their constituency projects.”

    Gemade described those behind the protest as “ill-informed” who should be told that constituency project is the only means to ensure the spread of projects in the country.

    He noted that senators do not even know the contractors who execute constituency projects.

    The Executive, he said should be told that constituency projects should not be discontinued.

    They are sponsored

    Deputy Senate President, Senator Ike Ekweremandu blamed the protest on unemployment and poverty.

    Ekweremadu said that it is obvious that government officials are behind the protests.

    He “There is unemployment in Nigeria. This has given people the opportunity to create jobs. That is why we now have professional beggars. What they do is to approach a government official who doesn’t like the Senate. He will ask for funding and they will collect N1,500 for each protester.

    “In the end, they give only N500 to each protester. I feel sad when I see these people at the gate protesting. They protest what they don’t believe in.

    “It was the late Umaru Musa Yar’Adua who then as president, insisted that lawmakers must be part of the process of budgeting.

    “He said about N100 billion should be set aside every year to cater for that need. He recognised the importance of lawmakers and how close they are to the people.

    “Anybody who is against constituency projects should be seen as an enemy of the country.

    “No amount of blackmail should stop us from continuing with this constituency projects which is helping our people. Constituency project is working in Enugu West and I believe it is working in other constituencies.”

    Saraki noted that the National Assembly would continue to educate the public on the importance of constituency projects.

    He said, “Nigerians should be made to appreciate that constituency projects is the only way to spread projects to every nook and cranny of this country.

    “The President should investigate those behind the protests. The protesters will tell you the minister and governor giving them money to protest. The irresponsibility of some people in government should not be allowed.

    “If protests should be allowed, it should be against release funds and award the contract. Those behind the protest should desist from such because they are known.”

    Group slams protesters

    A pro-democracy group, Center for Credible Leadership and Citizens Awareness said yesterday that the sponsors of a protest” do not mean well for Nigeria and are determined to plunge Nigeria into a state of fascism or totalitarianism.”

    In a statement, Chairman of the group, Dr Gabriel Nwanbu, said: “our attention has been drawn to the activities of some miscreants parading themselves as members of a civil society organization demonstrating in front of the National Assembly purportedly asking for the immediate resignation and/or impeachment of the Senate President, Dr Bukola Saraki, and linking him with the robbery at Offa, Kwara state.

    “It is most unfortunate that a group of hoodlums seen fightimg over a stipend of N2,000 distributed by their sponsors who obviously do not mean well for Nigeria and Nigerians by trying to mutilate the high integrity of the National Assembly which is practically the only Arm of Government that is still vibrant, defending Nigerians, asking pertinent questions on the checks and balances of Government as provided by the doctrine of checks and balances in any democratic state.

    “Killers went on rampage in Plateau State for as much as 7 hours without response from any security agency. You are alive today, but you are not sure of being alive the next minute not due to nature or act of God but because of the menace of herdsmen who are continuously on a killing spree,” the group said.

    It also asked “Perhaps, we need to ask; what is the value of a Nigerian life?”