BY OMONIYI SALAUDEEN
Countdown to The New Year 2015 begins this Monday. By implication,
the current fiscal year has just only 31 more days left to complete its
full circle. And as usual, the year’s budget which was tagged “Budget
for Job Creation and Inclusive Growth” came with a lot of hopes and
expectations among the citizens, as it promised to address some of the
fundamental problems affecting the quality of lives of the people.
These include food self- sufficiency, adequate power supply, employment
generation, improved healthcare service delivery, quality and
accessible education and security, among others.
For now, there is no official statement yet from the National
Assembly as to the actual performance of the budget. But there are
concerns among the stakeholders that the outgoing year might not have
been different from the previous experience. Since the advent of the
present democratic experience, implementation of budget has always been
a source of conflict between the executive and the legislature. In
2013, the performance of the budget was put at 64 per cent as at when
the 2014 budget proposal was presented to the National Assembly.
Part of the reason for poor budget implementation is the imbalance
between the recurrent and capital expenditures. For example, the
recurrent expenditure alone for the last fiscal year accounted for
about 52 per cent of the total budget. From available statistics, there
is no significant departure from this experience in the current year
running.
Even though the Director- General, Budget Office of the Federation,
Dr Bright Okogu, has assured that implementation of the 2014 budget is
on the right track, he could not hide the fact that capital aspect of it
is yet to be implemented 100 per cent. “We are on target; we are paying
and meeting all of the obligations of government. Salaries are being
paid which is usually the first area that you generally will look out
for as a government. We also are doing our usual with servicing our
debt. These are things you need to do as a sovereign (nation). It is
something you can’t simply ignore. That one is being done and we are
very much up to date. The transfers to the National Assembly, Judiciary,
NDDC and UBEC are being done. By current laws, they are required to
have special amounts transferred to them and we are doing all of
those.’’
On the Capital aspects of the 2014 budget, Okogu said that although
it was not yet 100 per cent but a lot of money had been released to
different Ministries, Departments and Agencies to do their work.
Senator Bukola Saraki, recently drew the attention of the senate to
late award of contracts. He said: “Again, in 2014 majority of the
ministries’ contracts are just being awarded. So, if they are just
awarding contracts in October, is it possible to have implementation?
The answer is no. These are some of the challenges that make us say the
budget implementation is faulty and will not meet the expectations of
Nigerians. I think we ourselves at the National Assembly need to review
the way we go about the budget implementation.”
Some of the areas where performance of the budget has been adjudged to be less than desirable are:
Power sector
In pursuit of its transformation agenda, the present administration
allocated a total of N62.45 billion to the sector. A large chunk of
this fund is to be transferred to the Transmission Company of Nigeria
(TCN) to guarantee the success of its power sector reform.
Accordingly, President Goodluck Jonathan raised the excitement of
Nigerians when he said at the beginning of this year that there would be
speedy supply of power by June. As usual, the promise turned out to be
another rope of sand, as Nigerians waited in vain without any respite to
the incessant power outages being experienced across the geo-political
zones of the country. When that assurance failed, the Minister of Power,
Professor Chinedu Nebo, again told the anxious electricity consumers
that they would start enjoying steady supply of electricity by October
2014 as plans had been put in place to ensure this.
Yet, no significant improvement has been recorded even as consumers
complain of arbitrary bills being imposed on them by the distribution
companies. Prior to the ongoing reform of the power sector, PHCN had a
dominant position in power generation and a monopoly of transmission
and distribution. Following the completion of the privatization process
and final transfer to the successor company over a year ago,
expectations were high that the crisis bedeviling the sector would be
finally laid to rest. The hope is yet to come to pass.
A former Minister of Information, Prince Tony Momoh, lamenting the epileptic power supply in the country in an interview with Sunday Sun said:
“They bandy figures front, left and centre and there is nothing to show
for it. They tell us there is 20 hours of light in Lagos and Abuja. In
Abuja where I stay; we don’t have up to four hours of light. You are
interviewing me now, generator is on. NEPA is standby and they increase
bills arbitrarily. What type of country are we running?
Most residents of Lagos who spoke with Sunday Sun accused
distribution companies of deliberate policy to rip-off consumers by
refusing to supply prepaid metres and consequently imposing arbitrary
bills on them. Mr. Segun Adio, who lives in Peace Estate, Aboru, Iyana
Ipaja, Lagos, complained bitterly about the hardship people in the area
are passing through due to power outages. “I pay a monthly bill of
N5000, but the so-called distribution company doesn’t feel it has an
obligation to supply us electricity. For almost one week now, we have
not been having light. I have to carry Jerry Cans in my car to fetch
water. If we have prepaid metres, I am sure they won’t do that. They are
deliberately shying away from that responsibility believing that they
supply us with electricity. Let’s wait and see. One day, the era of free
meal will be over,” he fumed. people will pay their bills whether or
not
The standard for industrial nations is the generation of 1,000 MW per
1 million people. By this standard, Nigeria is expected to generate
about 168,000MW to support her desire for industrial take off. But
according to the Power Minister, the current generation capacity still
stands at 4,500 MW. Nebo said: “First, I would say we rejoice that for
the first time in a long time we have been averaging over 4,500 MW when
we include nearly 300 MW of spilling reserve which is always put there
to make sure that the reliability and stability of the grid is ensured
at all time.”
As part of the effort to bail out the sector from the present crisis,
the CBN has just released about N213 billion for gas-producing and
power generating companies as part of Federal Government’s initiative
to boost steady supply of power. The fund which is under the CBN’s
Nigeria Electricity Market Stabilization Facility (NEMSF) was the
outcome of a collaborative effort of the apex bank, the ministries of
power and petroleum resources as well as the Nigerian Electricity
Regulation Commission. Nigerians are waiting to see the result of the
effort in the years ahead.
Education
For the first time in the recent past, education sector got a total
of about N493.5billion, representing 10.6 per cent of the annual budget.
Compared to the previous years, this amount is about the highest in the
life of this administration. But even at that, experts in the sectors
consider the amount to be too far from the UNESCO recommendation of 26
per cent of the annual budget in developing countries. They, therefore,
attributed the level of deterioration in public education at all levels
to lack of adequate fundind.
For good part of last year, the tertiary institutions witnessed the
most prolonged industrial crisis in the recent past. No less than six
months was lost by the Nigerian universities to the industrial action
embarked upon by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU). In
addition, the ongoing strike by the Academic Staff Union of
Polytechnics (ASUP) has also paralysed learning activities at the
nation’s polytechnics which are saddled with production of middle level
manpower. All these are a clear point to the fact that the government
is not giving enough priority attention to the sector. Today, Nigeria is
among countries of the world ranked low in Human Capital Development
Index. As experts say, the dream to make Nigeria one of the top leading
economies of the world by the year 2020 may remain a mirage unless
serious effort is made to revitalize this key sector of the economy.
Health sector
The health sector got 5.7 per cent of the total budget contrary to
the international benchmarks of 15 per cent for developing countries.
Like the education sector, health institutions also had their own share
of industrial unrest. The most recent one is the ongoing industrial
action by health workers under the aegis of the Joint Health Sector
Unions (JOHESU). Prior to the latest crisis, the nation had witnessed a
prolonged strike embarked upon by the medical doctors in
government-owned hospitals. All of this has taken a huge toll on the
nation’s health system as patients are being turned back in most Federal
Government-owned health facilities across the country. Available
reports since the strike started showed that patients at the Lagos
University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), Idi Araba, Lagos and the National
Orthopedic Hospital, Igbobi, Lagos were amongst those who could not
access treatment on account of the dispute between members of JOHESU and
the Federal Ministry of Health. Only a few federal health institutions
offered skeletal services for emergency cases.
For sustained industrial, government needs to quickly resolve the
disagreement on parity between medical doctors and other health works
once and for all.
Security
Security challenge occasioned by the Boko Haram insurgency is one the
critical areas people are expecting government to do more. According to
the Minister of Finance, Okonjo Iweala, the total spending on military
alone in this fiscal year is already in trillion. “Defence spending is
top in everything. You know that military establishments need new things
to assist them in their work and ours will not be different. No budget
will be enough to meet their demands. For now, I think the sector takes
almost a trillion of the budgets.”
This is aside the Police share which is put at N299.6 billion,
representing 6.5 per cent of the total budget. In spite of the huge
expenditure, Boko Haram has continued to unleash terror on the innocent
citizens. The figure of victims of this terror act is said to be
thousands and it is still counting. Since April, over 200 Chibok
schoolgirls captured by the insurgents are still in captivity. In recent
times, military capacity to deal with the insurgents was put to the
test when the terror group invaded some major cities in Adamawa and Yobe
and carved a territory for itself. The inability of the military to
contain the insurgency has been largely blamed on poor funding, low
level morale, obsolete equipment and lack of discipline among the army.
But government has consistently debunked claim, insisting that it
had provided the needed funds to prosecute the war. The Chief of
Defence Staff, Alex Badeh, had announced a cease fire agreement with
Boko Haram sect. No sooner than later, violence escalated, as the group
overran several communities, sacked the people and hosted their flag.
Consequently, there has been an upsurge in the number of Internally
Displaced Persons (IDPs) in the North Eastern part of the country.
Momoh, commenting on the security challenge facing the nation,
accused the government of politicizing the war against insurgency. “This
is the first time people will defeat our army and takeover territory,
almost six local governments in Borno State and a large chunk of land in
Adamawa and other areas. And to think that we have an army that has
earned its laurels all over the world speaks more of sabotage and
indiscipline than incapacity. Our army is more than capable to win wars
and to keep Nigeria one. But it seems to me that those who are in
charge are more interested in being politicians than the military,” he
said.
Food self-sufficiency
In order to encourage the local production of rice, a 10 per cent
duty and 100 per cent levy was applied to both brown and polished rice.
However, as local producers have not able to increase production to
meet consumers’ demands, there has been an increase in smuggled rice
from neighbouring countries. Consequently, the Nigerian government has
been urged to review the import regime on rice.
Nevertheless, government has consistently maintained that Nigeria
has never had it so good under the present Minister of Agriculture, Prof
Akinwumi Adesina. Recently, the Federal Government announced its
readiness to commit a total of N13 billion to the establishment of rice
and cassava processing mills in the country. Adesina explained that 10
integrated rice mills as well as six cassava mills would be established
in the country in pursuit of government’s policy to become self
sufficient in rice and cassava production.
According to the minister, the integrated rice mills would be
located in 10 states; Kebbi, Zamfara, Kaduna, Niger, Benue, Kogi,
Bayelsa, Bauchi, Ogun and Anambra. He added the cassava processing
mills would be located in Cross River, Abia, Delta, Ondo and Ogun
states. The 10 rice mills would have the total capacity to mill 360,000
metric tonnes and the six cassava mills will have total capacity of
180,000 metric tonnes. The minister stated, “They will not be owned or
run by government, they are going to be owned, managed and operated by
the private sector.”
Job creation
The focus of the proposed 2014 budget remains job creation and
reduced unemployment. The agriculture, manufacturing, construction,
and housing sectors are expected to be the main drivers of job creation.
Although the rate of unemployment is still a major problem
confronting the nation, administration of President Goodluck Jonathan
has continued to give itself a pat on the back for creating millions of
jobs for the unemployed youths.
Road infrastructure
Development of road infrastructure is one of the critical areas of
priority under the transformation agenda of the present administration.
This is in addition to the promised revitalization of the railway
sector. Despite the high expectation, most of the federal roads spread
across the country are largely in bad shape. For example, in Lagos, as
important as Apapa/Oshodi expressway is to the nation’s economy being
the gateway to the port, only a section of the road up to Cele Bus stop
has so far been rehabilitated. The other section is still awaiting
further release of funds. Commuters have to spend hours in traffic
gridlock any time it rains.
Furthermore, performance of the Federal Road Maintenance Agency
(FERMA) charged with the responsibility of maintaining federal roads
has been less than desirable. Where they do at all, they do it so
haphazardly that people hardly feel the impact of their work. The same
is being experienced in other parts of the country.
No comments:
Post a Comment