NAN-HE-20
Budget
By Donald Ugwu
Abuja, Oct. 5, 2015 (NAN) In furtherance of the desire of the present administration to revert to January to December cycle for annual budgeting, the Federal Government says it will present the 2018 budget proposal to the Senate in October.
The Vice President, Prof Yemi Osinbajo, said this at the Situation Room Dialogue between Nigerian Civil Society Groups and the federal government in Abuja on Thursday.
The Vice President said that although the 2017 budged would roll over to next year, the government was committed to returning to the passage of the budget by December each year.
“From 2018, we will have a budget of January to December.
“We will submit the 2018 budget to the National Assembly in October and we hope that by December the 2018 budget will be ready,’’ he said.
Osinbajo, however, said that the early passage of the proposal did not lie in the executive but depended on the legislature as “the National Assembly decides when budget is passed’’.
The Vice President addressed a number of issues raised by the Civil Society Organisations (CSOs), one of which was the anti-corruption programme of the administration.
According to him, the federal government remains committed to the fight and will deploy the recovered loot to some specific projects and name the projects after the recovered funds.
He said that while the administration was bent on bringing justice to perpetrators of fraud and corruption, the judicial processes were indeed very slow coupled with deliberate frustration of trials by defence counsel.
Osinbajo challenged the CSOs to support government’s anti-graft battle, noting that they had not raised their outrage against corrupt officials, which was inappropriate.
“I am amazed there is no much outrage of CSOs in the issue of corruption; CSOs are not speaking up on corruption.
“This is an existential problem for Nigeria; the sheer magnitude of corruption in the society, the organisations have not shown outrage or tracked the consistency.“
Osinbajo said the introduction of the Treasury Single Account (TSA) was to track all government revenue through one window, adding that the scope within government expenditure was to have layers of accountability.
On allegation that the CBN was printing money to solve the economic recession, he noted that such rumour was “untrue and the whole concept absurd’’.
According to him, the amount of money in circulation is within the appropriate limit and inflation is coming down in the country.
He said the Debt Management Office published periodic reports of the debt profile of the country, noting that in 2016 the country experienced 60 per cent drop in oil revenue and created huge tax revenue problems.
He said the government issued local treasury bills to raise money to fund projects, while the CBN’s direct intervention in the anchor borrowers’ scheme in the year stood at N42 billion.
He also said that the Social Intervention Programme (SIP) with annual budget of N500 billion remained the highest in the continent targeting the children, youth, SMEs and the vulnerable people.
The Vice President explained the intervention in the health sector, noting that health budget was increased from N280 billion in 2016 to N304 billion in 2017.
He, however, said that healthcare could not be solved by budgeting alone.
“The only way to rally fund for healthcare is to get funding from National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS); what we have adopted is to go the way of NHIS to fund healthcare,’’ he stated.
On elections, he said the President had issued a directive to security agencies to ensure that they created the enabling environment for electorate to exercise their franchise without intimidation or interference.
“The federal government will not interfere in election process; we are committed to free election process and the Commander–in-Chief has instructed security agencies to ensure that every Nigerian is free to vote without intimidation,’’ he said.
The Vice President explained the efforts being made to secure release of the remaining Chibok girls from Boko Haram captivity through negotiations.
“This is an on-going process and a lot of negotiations are going on but government is committed to ensure that all the girls and those held by Boko Haram are released,’’ he said.
He stressed government’s desire for community policing model, adding that a directive was issued to the Inspector-General of Police to work out guideline.
Osinbajo also explained the difficulties in power distribution since the privatization of power generation and distribution arms, noting that while there was an installed generation capacity of 13,000 to 15,000 megawatts, generation was at 7,000 mw.
He said the DISCOs rejected the power generated because they did not have comprehensive metering structure as not every consumer was metered.
Accordingly, he said the government had thrown metering open with the Nigeria Electricity Regulatory Commission to issue guidelines for independent supplies of meters and the “willing buyer willing seller’’ programme.
Osinbajo also noted that there was a shift to solar and other renewable energy mix with 10 companies already participating.
He reaffirmed government’s commitment to national unity, adding that those who complaints of marginalization did not present the facts on ground.
He said although government could attempt to ensure balance in appointments, it did not also believe that merit should be placed below ethnic consideration or the “kind of affirmative action’’ being advanced.
“Now everybody has been advocate of tribe than merit but they don’t do this in football for our national team once they want victory.’’
He called on the citizens to promote national consensus such as choosing merit in place of tribal considerations.
He criticized the proliferation of small arms but identified the route as North Africa, especially from Libya, adding that the President had asked security operatives to arrest and prosecute any herdsman with arms to curb clashes with farmers.(NAN)
DCU/IM
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Edited by Ibrahim Mammaga