Budget delay: Nigerians slam Buhari

They said it was embarrassing that the President could still be delaying the signing of the budget even after the first quarter of the year was over.

According to them, the delay signifies the President’s inefficiency and lack of preparation for serious governance.

A chieftain of the Yoruba socio-political group, Afenifere, Chief Ayo Adebanjo; the Registrar of the Chartered Institute of Finance and Control, Nigeria, Mr. Godwin Eohoi; the Lead Director, Centre for Social Justice, Mr. Eze Onyekwere and the spokesperson for the Ijaw National Congress, Mr. Victor Borubo, expressed concern that the delay could have negative impacts on the economy.

The President had on Thursday in the United States ruled out the possibility of early signing of the 2016 Appropriation Bill passed by the National Assembly last week.

He had said that before he would sign the budget, he would do a ministry-by-ministry review of the document to ensure that what was returned to him was the same with what his administration submitted to the National Assembly for passage.

But the eminent Nigerians said the President’s action could worsen the already decay infrastructure in the country.

Adebanjo said the delay meant that the All Progressives Congress-led government was clueless and was not sure of what to do with governance.

He said, “I have said it before that the APC has no programme. All the party wanted was that Dr. Goodluck Jonathan should go. But since the APC has assumed power, what has it done? It is not in my interest for Buhari to fail, but I want the country to move forward.”

Eohoi said since many investment decisions were tied to the budget, any delay in signing the document might affect investments inflows.

He said, “It is obvious that we are going to have a delay in the implementation of the 2016 budget.

“A lot of plans are dependent on capital releases and if capital budget does not start early, it will affect businesses because most people look at the budget to make informed decisions and those are the effects it will have.”

Onyekwere said, “From the provisions of our laws, the harmonised 2016 Federal Appropriation Bill should have been signed by the President on or before the clock strikes 11.59pm on December 31, 2015.

“This is to pave way for the full commencement of the financial year on January 1, 2016 in accordance with the Financial Year Act.

“But this was not the case as we have lost three months and no one is sure whether the President will not have some misgivings to delay the signing and thereby return the Bill to the National Assembly for further review.

“Nigerians expect the President to immediately sign the bill and move the executive to expeditiously start the implementation of the budget.”  Borubo questioned the reason given by Buhari for delaying the budget signing.

He said, “The delay shows that the issue of padding is not yet over. It also shows that there is absence of transparency in the whole system.

“Secondly, the President himself complained that the budget was padded but up till now, no one in the budget office has been arrested and prosecuted. That tells me that the war against graft is simply a lip service. It is when you prosecute such people that other people can be deterred from doing it again.”

The Director-General of the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Mr. Muda Yusuf, said the budget delay would have negative effects on the country’s infrastructural development plan among other implications.

He said, “It has implications for the economy. First, the interventions we expect from the Federal Government with regards to infrastructural investment may be further delayed. Infrastructural deficiency is one of biggest problems facing the economy and it is adversely affecting productivity in the economy. So, a further delay will affect government intervention on investment in infrastructure. If you look at the budget, you will see it is in favour of infrastructure.”

A member of the Peoples Democratic Party Board of Trustees, Chief Ebenezer Babatope, said it was too bad that the national budget had yet to be signed for prompt implementation to address the suffering of the citizens.

Babatope said the delay might be as a result of the alleged dispute between the Presidency and the National Assembly.

He, however, asked the President to quickly go through the document and sign it for implementation.

“Nigerians are suffering. Honestly speaking, the President’s aides should bring the suffering of Nigerians to his knowledge so that he can do something to minimise it.”

The National Coordinator, Rights Monitoring Group, Mr. Femi Aduwo, said the delay in signing the document showed that Buhari’s ministers did not contribute anything to how the “budget of change” was made.

“Delaying the signing of the budget shows that Buhari does not trust the National Assembly whose majority members are members of the President’s party,” Aduwo said, adding, “Before he appointed his ministers, the Vice-President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, said the administration would propose a budget of N7tr, in other words, the ministers did not contribute anything to how the budget was made.”

A rights activist, Mr. Ebun Adegboruwa, said the delay implied that the President did not prepare for serious governance.

According to him, the delay is a deliberate ploy by the President to hold Nigerians to ransom.

Adegboruwa added that the emergence of Buhari as the President was like inviting trouble to the country.

He said, “When Buhari’s government was inaugurated almost a year ago, power generation was about 5,000 megawatts, but it had drastically reduced now and nearly all parts of the country are in one crisis or the other. Militancy is back in the Niger Delta; it is a sad story that it appears that we are now in a war situation than we were before the current government took over power.

“It means Buhari is inefficient; his government is wallowing in confusion and has no direction.

“If the President insists that there is problem with the budget, it shows that the President has failed because his party is the one in charge. The Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki, is a staunch member of the APC and the Speaker, the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, is also a staunch member of the ruling party. So, if the President is still delaying the signing of the budget, it means the ruling party has failed; it means the ruling party is directionless.”

But an economist, Henry Boyo, backed the President’s action. He said previous budgets that were hurriedly signed did not impact the citizens in any form.

He said, “It will be self serving for anyone to call on the President to actualise a defective budget. In any case, if it is passed now, is there any guarantee that it would benefit the people?

Another economist, Bismark Rewane, claimed that it would be wrong for the President to hurriedly sign a budget that could later be found to be defective.

He said, “The President needs to be sure of what he is signing rather than signing it in a hurry and making mistakes.”

The Chief Executive Officer, Economic Associates, Dr. Ayo Teriba, asked Nigerians if it would be proper for the President to sign the budget without reading the document.

“Is that what Nigerians want,” Teriba asked, urging the citizens to shun the idea of making issue out of non-issue.