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Reports
of massive expenditures by the current Nigerian government pricks the mind,
making one come to conclusion that there is a possibility that the current
President may have embarked on a plan to deplete the national treasury in
case he does not get a longer tenure to do the same. As more reports of
glaring extravagance and waste, with the possibilities for massive corrupt
outcome keeps seeping from the present Jonathan Administration in Nigeria,
no publication should keep mute on it. These reports began to emerge
immediately following the demise of President Umaru Musa Yar’adua.
As we have impressed earlier in one of our articles, we did not forget that a struggle over pruning the 2010 budget proposal, in light of the economic realities, was one of the last battles that the late Umar Musa Yar’adua led government had to fight with his own party and governmental branches. And attempt at its presentation was the last official function the late President Yar’Adua sought to fulfill. That was a few days before he was rushed out for medical reasons to Saudi Arabia. He had given an ultimatum earlier to the National Assembly to get their acts together, so he could personally present his annual budget to them.
Earlier on, Yar Adua was reported to have staunchly rejected any attempts to neglect the realities of Oil revenue and the global economic crisis. For example writing from the International Association for Energy Economics, Jean Balouga describes such steps
“The Yar’Adua administration is re-working the 2009 budget in line with global realities. With oil prices now in a free fall, the government is set to drop its projected crude oil benchmark down. As part of cost-cutting measures, government plans to remove some items of expenditure from the budget while recurrent overheads and capital expenditure would be pruned. Important changes in the 2009 budget include the cancellation of overseas training, a 20% cut in the emoluments of all top federal government functionaries (from the President to the Permanent secretaries), a ban on the purchase of new cars for government functionaries and agencies, and no vote for new capital projects for ministries, departments and agencies.”
Now that his vice, Goodluck Jonathan is at the helms, it appears that those who staunchly opposed any responsible governmental spending are having a party. We now see why all the drumming was staged in getting Jonathan on board through thick and thin even when such demands were unreasonable. The game is now emerging, i.e. Nigerian political leaders have vowed to continue to enrich themselves corruptly using public funds as if it is their personal entitlement. And anyone who stands in their way may be eliminated. To them it seems, Nigerians can die from hunger, poverty, disease (hospital neglect), and other segmental collapse as long as they fill their pockets. People need to wake up to the realities of what is at stake.
The sad part of all such saga is, as such people brazenly engage in such mass extravagance, when the time for pointing fingers come, they quickly and shamelessly point at any dead leader they could find who could not defend himself, or else other vulnerable Northern leaders. Remember the General Abacha corruption campaign that lasted for years following the inception of the Olusegun Obasanjo regime, though Abacha has never stepped out of Africa for the entire length of his administration, while the later was the most traveled President in the nation’s history who ordered his own presidential jets in preparation for such trips.
Writing about the persistent violation of the Fiscal Responsibility Act, columnist Muhammed Haruna gave an example of an account, which he claimed was created by the former Obasanjo Administration where excess crude funds were deposited that was later use to offset Nigeria’s foreign debt. The accrued amount “…according to (Daily) Trust, peaked at $20 billion in January 2007. Today it is down to $3.4 billion. The depletion, said the newspaper, has been due to “persistent withdrawals...since 2009.”
That was not the first article raising alarm at such massive expenditure rapidly depleting Nigeria’s accrued base, and even reaching out for loans. Writing in June 2010 Daily Trust also has this to say “The Federal Government’s 2010 budget proposals submitted by the late President Umaru Musa Yar’adua to the National Assembly last November proposed to spend only N62 million to celebrate this country’s 50th Independence anniversary in October but President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration later hiked it to N10 billion.” The ten billion proposal was sent with the 2010 supplementary budget proposal earlier same month to the National Assembly.
NLC’s acting spokesman Onah Iduh commenting on the independence anniversary expenditure also criticized it saying the proposal contains “very frivolous and extravagant items in the context of the mass misery and poverty in the land, particularly under the prevailing cash squeeze due to the global economic crisis.” People should calculate the difference between 62 million and 10 billion, it is a staggering nine thousand nine hundred and thirty eight million (9,938 million Naira). So where is all the money going, while it is just a one day event of no critical and urgent necessity?
Daily Trust gathered that soon after the death of Yar’adua, top officials met at the Presidency and decided to mark the 50th anniversary in “a big way.” That was not the only disturbing trend, but the article quoted the amount the First Lady was allocated which was almost the entire ‘Yar adua budget for independence “First Lady Mrs. Patience Goodluck Jonathan will spend 50 million Naira on visits to special homes, orphanages, prisons and selected hospitals.” Haba jama’a.
And that was not all, immediately following the confirmation of President Jonathan in May, papers were hit with news of a World Bank loan. On May 5, 2010 for example, The Africa Report carried news of a 915 million dollar loan that Nigeria is taking from the World Bank. According to Nigeria’s finance minister Olusegun Aganga, the amount is to be drawn over five years for infrastructural development.
Many of the nation’s economic and financial experts have also decried foreign borrowing to boost the 2010 budget as reckless. Bankers and budget experts who met in June, shortly after the loan announcement in Lagos, all agreed that the trend does not augur well for the country. The one day seminar was jointly organized by the Nigerian Economic Society (NES) and the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (CIBN).
(c) The Optimist Voice. All Rights Reserved.
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