By George Samuel
Management of Nigeria’s economy in 2022 was somewhat a pragmatic endeavour for the then outgoing administration of President Muhammadu Buhari. His government was not shy to seek collaboration from the legislators to make his government agile enough to cope with various challenges that came biting hard on many economies, including Nigeria’s. Though, while the centre was doing the needful, the saboteurs were also rocking the system at the sub-national level.
For instance, citing the negative impacts of the Russia-Ukraine war on the country’s economy, the then president requested that the National Assembly reworked the N17.12 trillion budget it had previously passed to N17.31 trillion. His wish was granted and the supplementary budget was passed on Wednesday, December 28, 2022, after Jibrin Barau, chairman of the appropriation committee, presented a report during plenary.
Nigerians also heaved a deep sigh of relief when Buhari in same 2022 requested that the Senate help him to pass an N819bn supplementary budget to cushion the effects of floods and to complete critical infrastructural projects across the 36 states of the federation, mostly devasted by the ravaging floods. With an ever willing ninth National Assembly, the Senate under the leadership of Ahmed Lawan promptly granted his request as it passed the supplementary budget for the 2022 fiscal year – extending its implementation till March 31, 2023
Because the then president had insisted that the supplementary budget would be financed through additional domestic borrowings which would further raise the budget deficit for 2022 to N8.17 trillion, Nigerians needed to be clearly kept abreast of the fine details of the appropriation.
Thus, while presenting his report, the chairman of the appropriation committee, Jibrin Barau, said the funds were meant to cushion the effects of the floods and complete some projects that have reached 85 percent completion.
“This will make available funds to cushion the 2022 flood effects and completion of critical projects that have reached 85 percent completion,” the chairman said.
The statement reflected the fears of Buhari himself who was seriously concerned that the year had witnessed unprecedented loss, arising from flood. “The year 2022 has witnessed the worst flood incidents in recent history which has caused massive destruction to farmlands at the point close to harvest season. This may compound the situation of food security and nutrition in this country.
“The flood also devastated the road infrastructure across the 36 states and the FCT, and has affected sections of major roads and bridges nationwide that are critical to the movement of goods and services.The water sector was also affected by the flood and there is a need to complete some ongoing critical projects that have achieved about 85 project completion,” Buhari had said.
The insight that the Buhari administration had on the course of action that needed to be taken and the clear strategies through which he intended to achieve them, among other things, gave Nigerians a sense of pride and security that they would not be shortchanged. The fact that many of the projects were already at advanced stages of completion meant for Nigerians that the question of extended time of execution or outright abandonment were out of the way.
Also, having got the ‘paperwork’ right, the Buhari administration, through the Ministry of Works, set to work by engaging contractors on the reconstruction of the identified roads and bridges, which had been cut off by the ravaging floods. Some of the contracts also included working to prevent the damaging effects of subsequent floods across the country. With a sum of N705 billion available to the Federal Ministry of Works and Housing, contractors and, indeed, Nigerians felt that nothing would stand in the way of the nation’s recovery from the impacts of the floods on its infrastructure. Contractors, thus, swarmed on their sites. Today, some of them have completed their jobs while a few others are at impressive stages of completion.
Sadly, this is where the good news appears to end as current President Bola Tinubu is requesting for the approval to divert N500 billion out of this lump sum into the fallout of his removal of subsidy on premium motor spirit or petrol, without paying the contractors for whom the funds were statutorily budgeted. Recall that the fund in the 2022 supplementary budget is N819 billion out of which N705 billion was set aside for reconstruction of critical infrastructure destroyed by floods while N69 billion was earmarked for Nigerian farmers through the ministry of agriculture to cushion the effects of floods in which billions of naira worth of farmland and crops were destroyed.
For a nation that is reeling in the pains of desertion of its space by investors, it is instructive to remind its leadership that throwing both its local and foreign contractors under the bus will only sink the nation further in the abyss of economic isolation. It is a breach of agreement and sheer recklessness for the government to move monies that were clearly voted for specific projects to something else.
It would amount to economic rascality for the new administration, touted as a finer economic player, to seek to pursue its widely criticised ambition to share N8,000 palliatives to a fraction of its massive 220 million population. It is important to note that some of the contractors obtained facilities from banks to begin the work, and while these entities would face their fair shares of woes, the country will be the biggest loser if the current administration will start off with controversies that border on finance, faithfulness to terms of contract, rule of law and so on.
There are fears that some of the contractors could be forced to abandon the sites if the funds meant for the job they are handling is sacrificed on the altar of tokenistic economic model in which less than 12 United States dollars is shared monthly to a few households. President Tinubu, who is regarded as an enlightened and astute administrator and businessman, is expected to provide an environment that is warm and safe for genuine business people to carry out their trade and succeed. This places a huge responsibility on his government to be circumspect in the way and manner it portrays itself before the business community.
It is, therefore, important for Mr President and his economic strategy foot soldiers to summon courage and patriotism to review their position on the plan to divert these funds. It is in the interest of the nation to rescind the decision and ensure the money is used for the purpose it was initially budgeted for. Failure to do this would compound the woes of most Nigerians as work on the road infrastructure would not only be stalled, our development partners will have one more reason to refrain from doing business with us.
George, a public affairs commentator, writes from Abuja.
