The drama over the 2016 budget seems unending. As one act ends, another opens, making Nigerians wonder whether the government really worked on the appropriation bill before sending it to the National Assembly. It was with fanfare that President Muhammadu Buhari presented the budget to the National Assembly last December 22. Tagged ‘’Budget of Change’’, it is, according to the president, meant to restore Nigerians’ hope in their country after so many years in the wilderness.
Sadly, the enthusiasm about the budget is waning. Nigerians cannot understand what is happening to the budget over one month after it was presented to the lawmakers. Rather than see their representatives progress with work on the budget, it has been one complaint after the other since the document got to them about two months ago. From the Senate, first came the allegation that the budget had ‘’disappeared’’. Disappear? Nigerians could not believe their ears. How could the budget disappear when it is not a piece of paper on which something was hurriedly scribbled?
As the din over its whereabouts grew, the Presidency wrote to the National Assembly leadership, seeking to recall the budget for some corrections. Last January 19, it sent the corrected budget back to the lawmakers, with the figures, it said, ‘’remaining the same’’. Since the revised appropriation bill got to the lawmakers, our ears have been tingling from what we have been hearing from those coming to defend their budget. The impression they are creating is that they do not know anything about the document’s preparation. It sounds unbelievable that a minister will not know about his ministry’s budget until he is confronted with the figures by the lawmakers.
It all looks so comical, but it is not a laughing matter; no, not at all. Is it possible for a minister not to be in the know of his ministry’s budget until he and his team appear for its defence at the National Assembly? If this is so, who then prepared the budget? Was it prepared before the minister assumed office? If that is the case, was he not briefed about what was done before it was sent to the Budget Office for collation along with others? If we did not see the respective ministries working on their budgets, at least we saw the Minister of Budget and National Planning, Senator Udoma Udo Udoma, and his team working on the N6.08 trillion budget on national television.
Udoma even invited Vice President Yemi Osinbajo ‘’to see what we are doing’’. The vice president praised the team for what it was doing and Udoma said then that what remained was to dot the i’s and cross the t’s. Unfortunately, the budget defence has put a lie to the so-called enormous efforts said to have been put into the document’s preparation. Is this happening because the administration is in a hurry to meet the people’s expectation? It is good that the administration desires to fulfil its obligation to the people, but it will be better if it is thorough and painstaking in doing so because a country’s budget should be prepared by the finest minds around.
No matter the hurry in drawing up the budget, every figure must be correct so that when the document comes under scrutiny, as it is now at the National Assembly, there will be no room for doubts. Doubts have been created with the disowning of the budget by some ministers and the discrepancies discovered by the lawmakers. The firing of Director-General of the Budget Office Yahaya Gusau on Monday shows that there is more to the matter than meets the eye. Last February 8, Health Minister Prof Isaac Adewole caused a stir when he told the Senate Committee on Health that his ministry’s original budget had been ‘’largely distorted’’. A bigger drama occurred at the House of Representatives Committee on Capital Market last Thursday when the Investment and Securities Tribunal (IST) represented its 2015 budget for 2016.
‘’The budget for IST in the 2016 budget proposal is just an exact copy of its 2015 appropriation. It is word for word; figure for figure. And items dealt with and completed in 2015 were repeated’’, the panel said. Are those who prepared the budget blind? Or was it done deliberately to perpetrate fraud? The seriousness of the matter should not be lost on us all. This is why I disagree with Udoma that the errors were ‘’overplayed’’. They were not overplayed. Rather, it is Udoma, with all due respect, that wants to downplay a serious matter for which those responsible should be punished. A budget is not a document that should be treated in a slipshod manner the way some civil servants have attempted to do with the 2016 appropriation bill. I expect the minister to be angry that some people want to rubbish the first budget that will be prepared under his watch instead of him talking as if there is nothing to what has happened. There is a lot to it and in some countries it could have led to the resignation of the man in charge.
To many Nigerians, the president’s probe of the ‘’budget padding’’ is welcome so that our people will know that it is no longer business as usual. We expect more heads to roll over this matter besides that of Gusau. That will be the only way for Buhari to live up to his promise that ‘’the 2016 budget will address the problems. We are here to serve Nigeria and indeed Nigerians will get the service they have longed for’’.
See who’s PDP chair
On Tuesday night, Senator Ali Modu Sheriff popularly known as SAS became Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) chairman after a lot of wheeling and dealing. Many never expected PDP to go for SAS, but the party has made its choice; so it should live with it. But what has SAS, a former Borno State governor, got to offer the party? We wait to see.
The seven ‘wise men’
The jury is still out on the Supreme Court verdict upholding the election of Nyesom Wike as Rivers State governor. Did the Supreme Court err? Was the full court of seven justices induced? I keep my gun powder dry for now. For the benefit of readers, who have been asking, the seven-man panel comprised Chief Justice Mahmud Mohammed, Justice Ibrahim Muhammad, Justice Nwali Ngwuta, Justice Kumai Aka’ahs, Justice Kudirat Kekere-Ekun, who delivered the lead judgement, Justice John Okoro and Justice Aminu Sanusi.
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