The budget, from now onwards

All things being equal, the 2016 national budget will be signed by President Muhammadu Buhari this week. This follows from the disclosure that the joint committee set up to resolve all contentious issues in the budget has concluded its work. Chaired by Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yusuf Lasun Suleiman, and the National […]

All things being equal, the 2016 national budget will be signed by President Muhammadu Buhari this week. This follows from the disclosure that the joint committee set up to resolve all contentious issues in the budget has concluded its work. Chaired by Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yusuf Lasun Suleiman, and the National Planning Minister, Mr Udo Udoma, who represented the executive arm of the government, the committee appeared to have correctly read the temperament of the country where citizens had become weary of waiting for the operationalization of a budget about five months late. There have been a lot of drama and blame games regarding who has done what with the budget. Along the line, it has come to light that over years, the executive has used civil servants and legislators to fix the budget in a crooked manner. Let me be clear: past governments have relied on civil servants and the legislature to pad budgets.
Thus far, a few facts are discernible from the 2016 budget: This is Buhari’s budget; this budget has finally been knocked and shaped into what Buhari wants it to be. The 2016 budget is a triumph of executive firmness over legislative unsteadiness. After the needless grandstanding, the legislature, particularly the Senate, has had to shift grounds and include those development projects that are dear to the executive. The shape of the budget demonstrates more than ever before that President Buhari will not compromise on those issues he thinks are vital to the realisation of his change agenda.
By expunging the Lagos-Calabar railway provision in the budget (N60 billion), the legislators have shown themselves to be sloppy and on a different page with the executive; they have revealed themselves as a group of people incapable of appreciating the emergency needs of an economy suffering from a serious downturn and the minimum requirements for its turn around. Worse still, by inserting constituency projects for themselves; they have exposed themselves as narrow-minded and selfish people incapable of seeing from the point of view of the whole country.
By insisting on having those projects his government has budgeted for in 2016, particularly the Lagos-Calabar railway project, President Buhari has risen to the occasion as a broad minded leader interested in the balanced development of the country. Just imagine the amount of flak the President would have drawn if he had allowed the national assembly votes on the Lagos- Kano rail project to remain in the way and manner passed. Obviously, there would have been a lot of dissonance and plenty ammunition for all those hell bent on defining Buhari as a sectional and anti-South leader.
The President had earlier fired the Director General of the Budget Office, Aliyu Yahaya Gusau, to signal his disenchantment with the way the civil servants had handled his budget estimates. Aliyu Gusau, an otherwise brilliant civil servant noted for a thorough job, allowed himself to be overwhelmed by “budget rats.” This should be a warning signal that Gusau’s successors must devise new ways of drawing up the budget properly and to the satisfaction of the President without relying on the “experts” removed from the Budget Office in the aftermath of the departure of the former DG. For as long as the budget suffers from strange expenditures and insertions of unauthorised figures and projects, President Buhari will continue the house cleaning of that important national office.
Our optimism that the 2016 budget is indeed designed to improve the lives of the common people has replaced the hopeless altercations over who is to blame for what in the mutilation of the document. This is a reflationary budget where the state intends to play a decisive role in the restoration of hope and the promotion of the welfare of the people. The billions earmarked as loans for artisans, traders and women, if properly administered, has the potential of stimulating small and micro businesses.  The change agenda of identifying the most vulnerable segment of the population and giving each person the sum of N5, 000 is capable of addressing hunger and poverty, at least in the short term.
Going forward, the 2016 budget’s provision for 500,000 teachers to be employed is unprecedented. This scheme will dent unemployment figure and improve the student-teacher ratio in our schools.
The return of contractors to the different sites on Lagos-Ibadan Expressway rehabilitation (N50 billion), the Kano-Maiduguri road (section I-V, N16 billion) and hundreds of others across the country as well as the completion of the Abuja-Kaduna railway (N8.2 billion) is bound to create employment and improve the business environment in the country.
The resumption of work on the 2nd Niger Bridge (N17 billion), the construction of 7,068 housing units spread across the six geo-political zones in Abuja for which N44.5 billion has been voted for, all raise the possibility that the remaining half of 2016 will kick start the economy and return the smiles on the faces of the masses.
It is now crystal clear that Buhari’s budget, whether in 2016 or thereafter, will not be padded again by anybody. Henceforth, Buhari’s budget will be scrutinised like never before and not contain unauthorised expenditure on “constituency” projects. Notwithstanding the call by some commentators that Buhari should sign the budget as passed and submit a supplementary appropriation bill later, the President’s insistence that the right thing can and should be done has paid off.
The President’s integrity, tenacity and purposeful leadership have again come to the fore as far as 2016 budget saga is concerned. From now onwards, everyone knows that you cannot write strange figures or projects into the Buhari budget and get away with it. Mr President, you can now sign and implement the 2016 budget please.