NIGERIANS LIVES IN ABJECT POVERTY WHILE STATE HOUSE BUDGET OF WASTE CONTINUES..

State House budget of waste.

A close scrutiny of the 2012 Appropriation Bill currently awaiting passage by the National Assembly reveals a document prepared by a government that is only paying lip service to spending cuts. It also shows why our public finances are in such a distressing state. What is apparent is that, instead of the promised spending cuts, the government has padded the budget with sundry expenses that betray a penchant for profligacy, downright loss of touch with the economic realities of the country and outright misplacement of priorities.

Nowhere is this trend so much in evidence than in the N43.59 billion budget for the Presidency out of which a whopping N18.34 billion is allocated to maintain the President, his deputy and a coterie of bureaucrats in the State House Headquarters. The budget for the Presidency represents 58.12 per cent of the Enugu State budget of N75 billion, and about 50 per cent of Adamawa’s N87 billion budget for 2012. The State House allocation alone amounts to about 21 per cent of the budget for Adamawa State with more than 3 million population, or 24.5 per cent of the budget for Enugu State which has 3.3 million people to cater for.


For the State House, the recurrent expenditure alone “made up of N2.02 billion for personnel and N9.2 billion for overheads “gulps N11. 23 billion, leaving N7.1 billion for capital projects. Curiously, the capital expenditure includes the costs of purchases of buses, canteen/kitchen equipment and residential furniture, items for which provision was also made last year. Apart from the outrageous feeding cost of N993 million, which has rightly attracted widespread criticism and condemnation, there are other ridiculous entries and duplications suggesting opulence in high places that belies the endemic poverty in the country. Specifically, for their local and international transport for “training and others”, the President and his aides plan to spend about N1. 674 billion!


That is not all. To imagine that the Presidency, which already boasts a fleet of new, state-of-the-art cars, is budgeting another N382.3 million for the “maintenance of motor vehicle/ transport equipment” boggles the mind. Exactly how many vehicles would attract that amount as maintenance cost is still within the realm of conjecture; but the provision of N97.9 million for the extension/expansion of the State House car parks may shed some light on the size of the fleet.


There is also a provision in the same budget for a further expansion of the vehicle fleet, with plans for the purchase of additional sleek and exotic cars to the tune of N356 million. They include two Mercedes Benz 600 saloon cars at N140 million each; five Mercedes Benz 350 saloon cars at the cost of N25 million each and 10 assorted SUV cars for N100 million. These vehicles will be expected to chauffeur the President and a few of his aides around while millions of naira worth of food items and others agricultural products rot away in rural farms across the country due to lack of access roads to transport them to places where they are needed.


At a time when the government has consistently failed in its bid to power homes and factories with regular supply of electricity, a sum of N229 million is to be spent on the overhauling of two generators and rehabilitation of the transformer sub-station at the Aso Rock Villa.
Although there is hardly any hospital in the country that is well-equipped and well-staffed, the State House Clinic is not expected to lack anything. Accordingly, about N123 million has been set aside for the rehabilitation and repairs of hospital/health centres under the Presidency, with additional N268 million going for the construction and provision of additional hospitals/health centres. Similarly, N84 million has been budgeted for medical expenses; though it is not clear if that refers to expenses for overseas treatment, which is the usual preference of ailing government officials. Given the number of new projects in the budget, it is legitimate to ask if the State House is a new complex.


Even dogs and horses are not spared the luxury at taxpayers’ expense as about N36 million, an awful lot of money, is budgeted for their delivery room, training pitch, theatre and slaughter slab.
With budgets such as this, one does not need to look further for the reason why, year in, year out, the government always winds up with a budget of about 70 per cent recurrent expenditure and 30 per cent for capital, in addition to hefty deficits. Of all the bureaucracies, the Presidency is supposed to be the pacesetter in modesty, frugality, transparency and best practices. Evidently, the budget has shown Nigerians what President Goodluck Jonathan considers the priorities of his government: to provide funding for the government’s profligate lifestyle while calling on Nigerians to make sacrifices through higher petrol prices!


President Jonathan should break with the tarnished past. The public is willing to support tough economic reform, as long as it is also clear that the government itself is doing everything it can to reduce the extravagant lifestyle of public officials. He must listen to the call to reduce the current prohibitive cost of governance.


In a virile democracy, it is the constitutional responsibility of the legislature to scrutinise the budget with forensic precision. The National Assembly owes Nigerians a duty to go through the budget with a fine toothcomb and ensure that all the duplications and arbitrariness are expunged. If well-revised to cut waste and reflect the current economic realities of the country, it is possible the Presidency budget will be for less. The Federal Government’s historical slapdash approach to budgeting must end.

February 10, 2012 by Editorial Board of Punch.