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| Nigeria’s leader,President Muhammadu Buhari. |
By Remi Adebayo.
If there is any moment an average Nigerian was waiting for, it was the speedy passage of the 2016 budget into law. The expectation which was at the breathtaking pitch appeared set as the president, Mohammadu Buhari eventually submitted a supposed tidied document with a bow before the joint sitting of the National Assembly on 22 December, 2015.
Armed with the state of the already bewildered citizens, the President stated, "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 ever been."
Restating what should be the mind of Nigerians, Buhari assured that the budget, tagged Budget of Change was going to kickstart the economy.
His words, "This Budget proposal, the first by our Government, seeks to stimulate the economy, making it more competitive by focusing on infrastructural development; delivering inclusive growth; and prioritizing the welfare of Nigerians. We believe that this budget, while helping industry, commerce and investment to pick up, will as a matter of urgency, address the immediate problems of youth unemployment and the terrible living conditions of the extremely poor and vulnerable Nigerians," said President Buhari at the Budget presentation before the lawmakers."
Held by his words, Nigerians indeed waited and ferociously looking up to their leader, one they believed to be versed on economy and security situations bedeviling the nation to immediately swing into action.
As a result, when the President spoke of stimulating the economy in earnest, Nigerians at least felt a heave signifying some relief.
"The 2016 budget, as outlined, is designed to ensure that we revive our economy, deliver inclusive growth to Nigerians and create a significant number of jobs.
"We aim to ensure macroeconomic stability by achieving a real GDP growth rate of 4.37% and managing inflation. To achieve this, we will ensure the aligning of fiscal, monetary, trade and industrial policies.
"As we focus on inclusive growth, we are conscious of the current rate of unemployment and underemployment. This is a challenge we are determined to meet; and this budget is the platform for putting more Nigerians to work. I can assure you that this administration will have a job creation focus in every aspect of the execution of this budget. Nigeria’s job creation drive will be private sector led. We will encourage this by a reduction in tax rates for smaller businesses as well as subsidized funding for priority sectors such as agriculture and solid minerals," Buhari said.
Armed with these promises, and although oblivious of the budget content, the anxiety now shifted to the lawmakers to ensure proper scrutiny and passage of the document, a saving proposal.
The Drama
No sooner had the National Assembly resumed from its yuletide holiday than the Senate raised the alarm of a missing budget
.
The ensued controversies witnessed bulk passes between the Senate and the Presidency in a drama that was later settled.
Meanwhile, pundits had predicted the reported disappearance of the document to be the handiwork of the upper legislative chamber as a fight back to the president who they believe is unsparing to see the back of Dr. Bukola Saraki as the Senate President.
That was not to be with the disclosure situating the blame on the Presidency for seeking a backdoor amendments to some parts of the proposal it believed should be amended.
However, when the confusion of the evasive budget was eventuality resolved, the nation was thrown into another orgy of comedy.
The Controversies
If anything has impacted negatively on the image of the Buhari led administration lately, it is the 2016 budget, the confusion and the condemnable fraud.
Allegations coming from different angles indicate that the Ministry of Budget, a new one created from the Ministry of Finance did a shoddy job, a damaging one for a government renowned for change and corruption fight.
From the Education, Power, to Health ministries; State House and Office of the Vice President, all have been riddled in confusion that the Senate had to suspend its earlier position for the passage of the budget on February 25.
In reaching this decision, the upper chamber said the budget was full of errors that it could not continue to deliberate on it is presented until corrected.
Padded Budget
"A particularly disturbing instance of misplaced priority is the allocation for books for Vice President Osinbajo’s office.
"Mr. Osinbajo’s office has more money allocated to it for books than what each of the federal polytechnics in the country are getting for the same purpose.
"While N4,906,822 was proposed to be spent on books by Mr Osinbajo, the total allocation for books for 11 out of 22 federal polytechnics, which actually have book allocations, was a mere N3,832,038," Premium Times submitted in its budget analysis.
Revealing further, the newspaper disclosed that, "Of the N3,890,629,221 the Presidency earmarked to spend on the State House Medical Centre, N308million will go for constructing a new VIP wing at the clinic.
"Despite allocating N3.21 billion for health equipment and supplies for the State House Medical Centre, a separate line item under “State House HQTRS” lists a N203,273,602 budget for drugs and medical supplies and the vice president was also allotted an additional N7.54 million for medical expenses.
"In comparison to the State House Medical Centre’s N3.8billion allocation, only N2,666,853,303 was proposed in the budget for the construction of hospitals nationwide."
If that was not enough, the presidency also proposed N322,421,971 to link a cable to the drivers’ restroom at the Presidential Villa, N213,873,953 for linking of a cable from Guest House No 9 generator house to the gate.Also, N618,604,265 for the installation of electrical lighting and fittings at the villa, which equate to spending N1.6 million daily installing lighting and fittings and another N371,733,964 for the installation of electrical distribution boards and other cables.
The strangest of all is the proposed N22,321,880 budgeted for residential rent at the State House. N436,054,626 was allocated for meals and refreshment, canteen/kitchen equipment, foodstuff and catering materials for the president and the vice president.
While N20,260,300 was proposed for sporting and games equipment for the Presidential Air Fleet, another N39,075,000 was proposed for purchase of recreational facilities at the State House. Surprisingly the Office of the Head of Service of the Federation proposed to spend another N193,513,097 for recreational facilities as well.
Reactions trail budget padding
Padded into the budget are sectoral requests considered bizarre and as expected, condemnation started pouring in from different quarters. In fact, confused on the sanctity of the budget, already disowned by no less than ministers in charge of various ministries, the National Assembly announced its decision to discontinue deliberations on the document for containing so much errors.
Reacting to the development, Chairman, Senate Committee on Appropriation, Senator Danjuma Goje, and his House of Representatives counterpart, Jibrin Abdulmumin, at a briefing, said the budget was fraught with too many errors, which had made its passage into law impossible.
Senator Goje noted that the Presidency had also admitted that there were errors in the budget, explaining that it would be inappropriate to give a new date now due to the errors that they would have to work on.
“We are here in connection with the ongoing processing of the 2016 Budget because these two committees are the ones saddled with the production of the final copies of the budget that would be passed by the National Assembly for onward submission to Mr President for his assent and subsequent implementation.
“We want to remove all ambiguities, we want to remove all paddings. We want to produce a budget that is in line with the constitutional provision. During the budget defence, a lot of issues based on the padding of the budget, arising from over-bloated overheads and in some instances cases of over-bloated personnel cost," Goje said.
In the midst of this development, the Presidency has pointed accusing fingers at 'Budget Mafia' within the civil service with a promise to saction them.
Similarly, the opposition Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, could not hide its disgust, prompting the outspoken Ekiti State Governor and ardent critic of the Buhari government, Peter Ayodele Fayose to demand the recall of the budget for fresh presentation before the legislative chambers in a bid to save the nation the embarrassment of the budget padding.
A statement issued by his Special Assistant on Pubic Communications and New Media, Lere Olayinka, said: “The President should admit that there were avoidable errors in the budget and since he is human and not immune to errors, he should simply do the needful by presenting a new and credible budget to the National Assembly.”
Impact on the anti-corruption war of the Federal Government
Passionate about fighting corruption, the Buhari government is already gaining applause for prosecuting various officials of government at the courts by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC.
In addition, the institutional implementation of the Treasury Single Account, TSA, is also helping government in mopping up funds to run government considering the consistent plunging of the petroleum prices.
Addressing a gathering of Financial chiefs from the states in Abuja lately, the Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun disclosed that the nation had saved N2.2trn through the TSA, urging the states that are yet to impliment the policy to replicate it in their states.
Unfortunately, while government is saving such revenue, calls for sacrifice and understanding on the part of the citizens seem to have been ridiculed by the 2016 budget where top government officials are outrageously favoured to benefit extravagantly from the budget against the modest lifestyle demanded from Nigerians.
Further to that, the opposition will be fierce against the government over its inability to handle budget and may rubbish the anti-corruption drive.
Way out
Except government immediately fish out culpable officials in the fold of the avowed mafia, its fence-mending and damage control measures may be too late in saving what the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed called the corruption fight back.
However this is resolved, the federal government must have learnt a bitter lesson, that while fighting the corruption war from the courts and prosecution, lot still must be done to block institutional rots and limit enticement to corrupt practices as the 2016 budget represent today.
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