-Says revenue projections unrealistic
-Wants $50 as oil price bench mark
-Discordant tunes at Reps
By Taiye Odewale and Joshua Egbodo Abuja
Proposals by the executive in the N8.612 trillion 2018 Budget, were yesterday torn into shreds by senators during a debate on the general principles of the budget, ahead of its passage for second reading. Many of the senators, who contributed to the debate across party lines, declared that the N11trillion collectible revenue proposed in the budget cannot in any way be met going by previous years’ experience.
They, therefore, called for increase in the oil price bench mark from $45 to $50 per barrel. First to lampoon the budget proposals was Ehinaya Abaribe (PDP, Abia South), who described the projections in it as ‘fictitious’ before changing it to ‘imaginary’ following a protest by the Senate Leader, Ahmad Lawan (APC, Yobe North).
According to him, “since the 2018 budget is projected to consolidate on the gains made by the 2017 budget and the 2017 budget performance percentage is just about 15%, automatically the 2018 budget proposals are done on wrong projections which to me, is dead on arrival.” Also, in his own contribution, Joshua Lidani (PDP, Gombe South), said the proposals and projections in the budget, as far as expected revenues are concerned , is nothing but building on quick sand and very weak foundation .
Also, Abubakar Yusuf (APC, Taraba North), in his contribution, asked whether the President Muhammadu Buhari ever went through the budget proposals prepared for him by bureaucrats before presenting same to the National Assembly, going by the yearly heavy shortfalls in revenue projections He said rather than critically looking into what “can be done in making agencies responsible for non oil revenue generation to brace up, it(Presidency) keeps projecting unrealisable revenue collections on yearly basis, as experienced this year where only N155 billion was realised out of the projected N807 billion independent revenue generation.” Even the Deputy Whip, Francis Alimekhena (APC, Edo North), faulted the budget proposals which he described as over-bloated and unrealisable.
“Year in, year out, we are faced with bloated budget estimates that cannot achieve performance implementation beyond 15 per cent it achieved this year,” he said. According to him, since the price of crude oil in the international market is above $60 now, the oil price bench mark should be jerked up from the proposed $45 to $50 as a way of maximising the projected N6.387 trillion oil revenue, since the projected N5.597 trillion non oil revenues are not realisable. Similarly, Ben Bruce (PDP, Bayelsa East), in his contribution, called for drastic reduction in the cost of governance, with scrapping of agencies performing duplicated functions. According to him, “having a budget profi le where 25% is meant for debt servicing and 71 per cent for recurrent expenditure shows that we have no budgetary proposal at all in the real sense for capital expenditure.”
“We have downgraded our economy and the reason is that we cannot meet our revenue projections. It is understood that this is a budget of consolidation; I would rather describe it as a budget of active imagination.
“If you look at the budget from 1960 to the present, you have agencies that were designed for 1960, agencies that were designed for the Nigerian civil war, and agencies that were designed to suit some certain conditions in life. “Sixty years later, those agencies still exist in the budget. If you look at the budget, you will see some agencies, they get recurrent expenditure, they pay salaries, they get houses, computers, cars but they have no money to do any work. No money to do any work, we pay salaries,” the lawmaker submitted. Continuing, he said: “Some agencies are so bloated it defies logic, but these agencies exist. So, we have 2.4 million people consuming 60 per cent of the recurrent expenditure of Nigeria; it doesn’t make any sense.
“I called President Obasanjo on phone two days ago and he said to me; the National Orientation Agency was necessary when we had no political party. What is the value of the National Orientation Agency in today’s world for instance? Yet billions of Naira are spent in that agency. “Let us look at agencies that make no sense. FRCN sells it to the staff . FRCN has 8, 000 workers sell it to them. Sell NTA to the staff . Voice of Nigeria; who listens to the Voice of Nigeria? Sell it. If the staff want to buy, let them buy it. Set up a cooperative like Awolowo did, sell it to them. If we spend 71 per cent on recurrent expenditure, we will never get out of this predicament we fi nd ourselves. “Th e United Nations projected that in February 2018, Nigeria will have more people in poverty than in India. We have a population of 180 million people, India has 1.3 billion. Th en, if we are going to have more people in poverty than India, then we have to create jobs. Once we create jobs, we can then export our Naira to China, to India or some other places.” Debate on general principles of the budget continues today.
Mixed feelings at Reps
In the same vein, members of the House of Representatives have expressed diff erent opinion on the proposed 2018 budget, as the House commenced debate on its general principles of the bill yesterday, which was the fi rst allotted day. Th e process started on a shaky note, as the Deputy Speaker, Hon. Yusuf Sulaimon Lasun, who presided at the plenary, called for commencement of the debate. Consequent upon this, Hon. Adamu Chika raised a point of order, drawing attention of the House to the fact that the Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF), which should precede consideration of the budget as required by the Fiscal Responsibility Act, was yet to be ready. Lasun while responding said it was time to plead with ourselves.
“I will crave the indulgence of colleagues that debate is not tantamount to passage. We’ll on November 30 adjourn to conduct oversight and do proper defence of the budget. Let’s debate it so that we can proceed,” he pleaded, explaining that the relevant committee was yet to conclude work on the MTEF, and gave assurance that it will be ready in 24 hours. Leading the debate, Majority Leader of the House, Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila, who described Chika’s assertions as “correct,” and that “we can’t flout laws we passed,” however, re-emphasised the deputy speaker’s plea. He said the budget bill had been appropriately tagged, and hinged “on zero based budgeting system, designed to get the country out of recession in quick time.” Gbajabiamila recalled the assumptions to include oil production projection of 2.3 million barrel per day and exchange rate N335 to a dollar.
He noted that with the deployment of new technology for tax collection, N6.6 trillion has been put as projected revenue, N1.6 trillion to be borrowed to finance the budget. “We must look at the bigger picture of diversifi cation, infrastructure development, and job creation. We must not lose sight of the positives. We have a responsibility of passing the budget, because there can be no economic progress if we did not do our job.” Contributing, Abubakar Yunusa insisted that the House must ensure that capital budget “is higher than recurrent at the end of the day,” while Chika said the legislature and the executive should chart a sustainable course for development. He said there was the need to improve the lives of the people, and that members’ zonal intervention projects should be sustainable ones, and not reduced to mere provision of boreholes and the likes.
Also, in his submissions, Tahir Monguno said “no matter how big the size of a budget, it remains at the realm of estimate, and so long as it is not implemented to the letter, Nigerians will be deprived of its full benefi ts.” He added that poor budget implementation “has reminded a clog in the wheel of our progress,” just as Isiaka Ayokunle said he had not seen “anything tangible that can move this country forward in the budget.”
