For many years it has appeared that Nigeria had largely failed to properly plan its development. That the country has been ever present on the path of underdevelopment gives spine to the suspicion that its underdevelopment has been carefully planned all along.
If the famous admonition that those who fail to plan necessarily plan to fail holds true, it is because for many years it has continued to show that it is true in Nigeria while exposing the shallow folly of those who refuse to adhere to its simple wisdom.
A yearly ritual
In a feeble attempt at national planning, every year, Nigeria draws up a budget at the federal level. This budget which usually captures everything a budget should capture usually takes into consideration the income and expenditure the country forecasts in the next fiscal year.
The president and his team usually draws up the budget which is then presented to the legislature which proceeds to pick it apart prescript by prescript in one of the more salient and salubrious demonstrations of the salutary principles of checks and balances and separation of powers.
The executive in different states also draw up their own budgets which still undergo the routine ritual at the state legislature for passage into law.
The Nigerian experience has been that of the calm before the storm as the elaborate presentation of the budget is usually a prelude to stormy debates about its contents. Ministries, Departments and Agencies are often called to defend their budgets before joint committees of the National Assembly in what passes as spirited but often futile attempts to ensure fiscal transparency in the cycle of national planning in Nigeria.
Some years ago, Nigeria was engulfed by scandalous allegations of budget-padding which was essentially a practice whereby budgets were inflated and bloated by those who for many had become enriched by the business of milking Nigeria dry
President Muhammadu Buhari recently laid the 2023 budget before the National Assembly. The budget put at N20.51 trillion has since passed second reading at The National Assembly.
Reacting to the budget, Senator Ali Ndume (APC Borno South) queried the rising recurrent expenditure captured in the budget despite the embargo placed on employment by the Federal Government and the hundreds of retirees recorded on a yearly basis.
According to him, the N8.2 trillion naira earmarked for recurrent expenditure in the proposed N20.51 trillion 2023 budget constituted 43 per cent of the entire budget profile. He also dished out figures showing that since 2018, Nigeria`s recurrent expenditure had been constantly rising.
Some proposals in the budget have also roundly alarmed Nigerians including those Nigerians who are neither given to melodrama or social media hysterics.
For example, from what has been gleaned so far from the budget, about 14 billion naira has been allocated for internet subscription, telephone charges, stationaries, computers, books, newspapers and personnel costs for the presidency. It would appear this amount is not so humongous when put side by side with the extensive list of items it is expected to cover. But in a country that should be cutting costs, how can it not be too much?
Similarly, about 11. 92 billion was earmarked for the food items and foreign trips for the president and his vice as well as refreshments, kitchen accessories and other related items.
It is regrettable that those who sit to draw up Nigeria`s annual budget do not seem to take into consideration the fact that Nigeria is now among the poorest countries on earth. A country where about 91 million languish beneath the poverty line cannot think itself rich even for a second.
This being the case, can Nigeria really afford the humoungous amounts allocated to stuff that do not amount to more than satisfying the personal pleasure of those whose terms of service to the country should dictate that they cut their own costs?
It is rather unfortunate that Nigeria is yet to grasp the full extent of its economic fragility which would only worsen as long as nothing comprehensive is done to curb oil theft and plug other loopholes in the Nigerian economy.
As long as the case remains that of wanton wastefulness, Nigeria can expect that its bed will continue to be warmed by want.
Kene Obiezu,
Twitter: @kenobiezu
