Reps lament emptiness of 2018 budget

The executive arm of government on Wednesday received a good dose of lashing for poor execution of the 2017 budget and submission of an appropriation bill for 2018 that fails to capture the essential needs of Nigerians.

The attacks came from members of the House of Representatives during their Wednesday plenary which was its second debate on the general principles of the 2018 financial estimates.

President Buhari had on November 7, presented at the joint session of the National Assembly, a total of N8.6 trillion, proposed for income and expenditure in the 2018 fiscal year.

Debating on the proposal earlier on Tuesday, Reps members had berated the executive arm of government for poorly executing the 2017 budget which is currently running.

At its plenary again on Wednesday, the lawmakers took turns to continue their lamentation over the poor execution of the 2017 budget while also berating the executive for its failure to present a budget capable of addressing the essential needs of the country in the proposed 2018 Appropriation Bill.

They said that though the executive failed to do the needful in the proposal, that they are going to engage sufficient thinkers in the House to peruse the document and make it usable for the benefit of the citizenry.

Baba Munir Dan-Agundi (Kano State), in his submission said, “We didn’t achieve much in the year 2017 as regards to capital implementation. We have to tell ourselves the truth. We have a social contract with Nigerians. What we do here will reflect to Nigerians. This is my 6th year of witnessing budget. What’s the performance of 2016 and 2017. In the budget of today, we did we put in place to address this poor revenue generation?

“What emphasis did we put in place to generate revenue? We need to make a distinction between administrative capital project and developmental capital project. Another thing we should be careful about is the issue of oil price projection. We need to ask ourselves what transpired in this chamber last three weeks on Ken Sara Wiwa. The people there are not happy.

“Another issue is agriculture. The ministers and the executive will always come here and tell us what they want us to hear. We have a duty to do the needful for Nigerians in 2018/2019 budget. Let us do the right thing, explore the nitty-gritty of this budget for Nigeria.”

Another lawmaker, Abdulrazak Namdas (Adamawa State) argued, “We should be worried about the reality. We shouldn’t be worried about when we are going to pass the budget.”
Expressing doubt over the realistic nature of 2018 budget proposal, Joseph Edionwene from Edo State said, “In 2017, we captioned our budget of Recovery and in 2018, we have captioned it as consolidatory. We over-promise in our budget and under-deliver and it is not fair. In 2018, we are already projecting 2.3 barrels when in 2017 we were unable to meet the target of 2.2. Official rate of 305 per dollar as against the market price of 365 is unrealistic.”

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In his submission, Afe Okere ( Ondo State) also said, “I want to say that considering the level of development, we are not really committed. I found that in the last two budgets, the percentage that we earmarked for the capital project is grossly inadequate. Even in spite of that, not up of 15 per cent of that 30 per cent was achieved. In 2017, we didn’t even achieve 10 per cent of the 30 per cent. That shows we are not serious. And if it continues like that I don’t see how we can achieve any meaningful development. Every year, we give recurrent priority.

My own recommendation is that we have to do the needful. It is not compulsory that what is proposed to us must be returned to them in that manner. Otherwise, we turn the budget to mere window dressing. I wouldn’t want the budget this year to go the way of 2017.”

Lamentably, Julius Pondi (Delta State) added, “Every single land in the Niger Delta is polluted by oil exploration. The president said that the future will be better. What’s the future that will be better when you place a ban on employment? Now, the projection is 2.2 million barrel.”

Another lawmaker, Yusuf Ahmed Tijani (Kogi State) argued, “If truly this budget is consolidation, why was Okene-Lokoja road totally removed from the budget? There are accidents on the road every day. And these are Nigerians. I would plead that will redirect our priorities.”

 

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