When I remember the fact that Nigeria is now officially in a recession, the shamelessness of officially-licensed larceny going on in the National Assembly with the Abdulmumin Jibrin’s ‘confessions’ and the crying poverty biting the common and the not-so-common citizenry, I can’t help but revisit this piece published in January 2. No doubt, it is going to be a long way to economic recovery for this country if the authorities continue playing the ostrich…
In this period of good tidings, it is generally assumed that the beginning of another year should ignite the feeling of hope across the world. Unfortunately, you rarely see the jollity or good feelings of the season on the face of the average Nigerian. Instead, he bears a melancholic, plastic smile on the face; in spite of everything around him, he wants to feel and seem happy. But repressed concerns and emotions surface into the consciousness now and then. For him, the rude joke of belt-tightening has gone beyond ‘be careful’ as they say in the suburb. Ironically, in this period of joyful bloom elsewhere, all that surrounds him is a pall of gloom. It becomes manifestly clear when he realises that the 2014 celebration, though low-keyed with the crumbs he could muster for the family, was far better than the no-budget reality that gnawed at him last year. The people on our streets are not smiling even when the government has not officially declared any austerity crisis. The pain and anguish of a deflated economy are already biting without anyone knowing when its reality would be officially made public. Yes, it is an era of change with a promise of a brighter tomorrow. What confounds the citizen is the possibility of not seeing that tomorrow if nothing urgent is done now, to save him from becoming a casualty of the present economic strangulation. Crudely put, this country is wobbling on its legs!
As I write this, I can only imagine the number of families that celebrated Christmas in 2015 with the mood of a horde mourning the death, not the birth, of Jesus Christ. It is not just about those who could excuse the tragedy on a curious ‘presidential order’ that civil servants be paid salaries on the eve of a 5-day long public holidays. It is more about that commoner on the street who forages for fate daily in a society that has lost its humanity due to the raw greed of the privileged few. It is not just about the pain that aggravates the heart of the one who was used to drawing infectious laughter out of the harsh faces of few beneficiaries from his generosity both far and wide. This year, he just could not do anything while being rendered useless by the asphyxiating economic conundrum in which the country has found itself. It is more about the unmitigated gloom that most families have been thrown into, in a season of imprisoned hope.
And so, when President Muhammadu Buhari drew applause with his inspirational canticles on the floor of the National Assembly during the presentation of the 2016 Budget the other day, many had thought that the three-volume documents would be spared the perennial repetitive streak that has turned the annual ritual into a waste of precious time by all. But if feelers are anything to go by, then President Buhari would need more than elevated language to convince anyone that The Presidency is not about to shift into higher gear towards exceeding the benumbing profligacy of the immediate past tenants. Yes, Buhari may not have watched idly like Jonathan did when he stamped his presidential imprimatur on the illegal sharing of billions of Naira to apologists, hangers-on and unscrupulous aides by the former National Security Adviser, Col. Sambo Dasuki. Maybe he wouldn’t have tolerated the callous rape of the treasury by all manner of characters hanging around the corridors of power in the guise of protecting a weakling whose main interest was returning to office by all means possible. Well, those who participated in the heist are facing the odd music being played by the orchestra of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.
Having said this, some seven months into the life of the Buhari government (now more that 14 months), we are not exactly sure if anything significantly different has changed in the way Abuja is doing things. It is one thing for Buhari to wax poetic about how deeply sorry he was to see the anguish on Nigerian faces as they eke for a slice of porridge in a challenging economic terrain. It is definitely another bitter pill to swallow when we were treated to the shocking reality that the details of the 2016 national budget reflect nothing more than a continuation of the wasteful allocations of the past 16 years. Simply put, there is something unnerving about a budget that seems to appropriate more money for The Presidency to service the luxurious tastes of a few individuals in an era of recession. Unless Buhari convinces Knuckle-headed me that he never saw the breakdown of what Aso Rock would gulp before rushing to the National Assembly to wow us with his “I feel your pain” lyrics, then I align with those who have refused to be overoptimistic about that three-tome disaster called a budget!
In case none of his aides has been bold enough to tell him, there is a world of difference between saying the right things and doing what ought to be done to instill sanity into a system that is corrosively corrupt. How can a Buhari, an epitome of frugal living, justify the allocation of a whopping N3.6bn for the purchase of posh BMW cars for his office in the 2016 budget? Why must the State House change cutleries in a yearly ritual that gulps millions of Naira of taxpayers’ sweat? We thought that era of sickening madness had gone with the Jonathan mistake. What we did not bargain for is the report that the present change agents, whose Aso Rock residence was refurbished shortly before moving in in May last year, would be needing N387m to renovate a guest house; N47m to furnish the guest house; N27m to buy computers and N764m to provide recreational facilities. If we labelled Jonathan reckless for cornering N944m for his foreign and local junkets in 2015, why shouldn’t we cry daylight murder if Buhari now plans to hug the skies in 2016 with N1.4bn only? And what’s that thing we hear about the appropriation of N189m to purchase tyres for vehicles?
To be fair to Buhari, he has drastically cut down on the gluttonous allocation for food in the last ten years or more. But The Presidency budget is not just about bread and butter alone. There is little or less to cheer in a budget that projects to spend N29bn, about N5bn more than what Jonathan spent last year, on certain fussy sub-heads. It is not just about the bloated figure but also about the list of spend. Besides the questions hanging over the planned purchase of exotic vehicles to mostly political appointees, it beggars belief and logical reasoning that Mr. Buhari’s palatial residence would be needing N326m for wildlife conservation and the purchase of exotic animals. Pray, wouldn’t Jonathan be laughing his head off especially when we took him to the cleaners for daring to spend common N24.6m on the same subhead last year? Like I wrote in a piece last year, I still cannot fathom any cogent reason why they keep on changing ‘canteen material and kitchen equipment’ every year in Aso Rock. Now, we are being told that N89m would be needed in 2016 to change cutleries; about five million naira more would be added to the N11m spent last year in the Vice President’s office to buy foodstuff and catering services; N12m for recreational materials and N30m to purchase tool boxes, car jacks and diagnostic machines for Buhari’s bulletproof cars! If care is not taken, I may abandon this thankless job and take up appointment as an apprentice motor mechanic in Aso Rock!
I’m personally pained that the mistakes of the past have crept into this latest experiment at budgeting, thereby exposing the government to ridicule. It is either someone had failed to do his job with the seriousness it required or the government has refused to take the feelings of the common person seriously. You can only attract condemnation when you come out with a budget that ingloriously assumes that it is perfectly cool to spend a whopping N27m on buying C-caution sign triangles, fire extinguishers and cables. Do they think something better couldn’t have been done with N114m instead of wasting it on the upgrade of internet infrastructure in the State House?
I perfectly understand that the State House needs to be heavily protected especially with the state of general insecurity in the land. Yet, one wouldn’t mind if the drafters of this bogus budget can explain why they need N100m for ‘Active Devices for State House Network’ and another N35m for security appliances, licenses and computer anti-virus software. How much of these gadgets were purchased last year and why should they crop up in the 2016 budget again? Now, what kind of ‘All-eye” surveillance project would be costing the Office of the National Security Adviser to install at N8.7bn with another N9bn going into what this paper tagged an esoterically-named “Stravinsky Project” in this budget of humongous figures?
We may go on and on about the fundamental errors in the Buhari budget. In fact, some persons may even justify the appropriations. However, what is not in doubt is that The Presidency has failed to lead by example in its campaign of change by failing to cut down on its excesses and needless longing for impudent prodigality. In his budget summation at the National Assembly, Buhari said: “I know the state of our economy is a source of concern for many, worsened by the unbridled corruption and security challenges we have faced in the last few years. Fellow Nigerians, the confidence of many might be shaken. However, I stand before you today promising that we will secure our country, rebuild our economy, and make the Federal Republic of Nigeria stronger than it has even been”.
Quite a number of persons would naturally doubt how these lofty ideals can be achieved if this unproductive tradition of profligate spending is yet to be nipped in the bud right under the nose of a President with a knack for simple if not rustic living. There is nothing reflective of Buhari’s hyped love for Spartan life and moderation in this budget! Nothing at all to show that we have changed for the better. Should the rot persist, then that would be the greatest pain, the deepest disappointment for the masses in this experimental journey of change. Will Buhari call for a re-jig of The Presidency’s appropriations for 2016 to reflect the pain he claims to feel for the suffering masses? Now that’s a tall order.
You know what? Now that we are officially in the red, can we have a new figure on The Presidency’s spend reflecting all the cuts from the initial humongous figures that were hastily yanked off the official site of the Budget Office? Can we know if this recession bites them too?
