Former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar has criticised the
Federal Government’s N71 billion reduction in the 2020 budget as grossly
insufficient.
In a statement on Thursday, Atiku said the response of
Nigeria to the coronavirus meltdown in the global economy only shows that ” we
have lost touch with the current realities”.
“Nigeria cannot make up for the loss of expected revenue by
taking out more loans and issuing out more bonds.
“Debt will be the death of our economy and bonds will put
our people in bondage”, Aiku said.
“The best way out of this economic quagmire is to reduce our
expenditure. And a 0.6% reduction is no reduction. It is only window dressing…
“It is to my consternation that despite the crash in the
price of oil, and the inability of Nigeria to expand our revenue base through
the non oil sector, the Federal Government of Nigeria has only seen fit to
slash our budget by a mere 0.6%, from ₦10.594 trillion to ₦ 10.523 trillion.
This represents a reduction of only ₦71 billion”, Atiku noted.
He then went to prescribe budget items that must be
jettisoned.
“My counsel to the Federal Government of Nigeria is this:
put Nigerians first and cut your coat, not according to your size, but
according to your cloth.
“Realistically slash the budget. Every pork barrel has to
go. The billions budgeted for the travels and feeding of the President and Vice
President has to be reduced.
“The ₦27 billion budget for the renovation of the National
Assembly has to go.
“The massive budgets to run both the Presidency and the
Legislature has to be downsized.
“The budget for purchasing luxury cars for the President,
his vice, and other political office holders must be jettisoned. Leave the
salaries of civil servants alone, but reduce the salaries of political
appointees. Sell 8 or 9 of the jets in the Presidential Air Fleet.
“Any budget slash that is less than 25% will not be in the
interest of Nigeria. And beyond a budget slash, Nigeria needs a budget
realignment, to redirect expenditure away from running a massive bureaucracy,
into social development sectors like education, infrastructure, and above all,
healthcare. We must invest in the goose that lays the golden egg – the Nigerian
people”.
The Nigerian budget was predicated on a projection that the
nation would generate crude oil production of 2.18 million barrels a day, at an
expected oil price of $57 per barrel.
“Today, that is no longer the case. Both our production, and
the price of oil have been severely affected by the coronavirus pandemic, to
the extent that we have unsold vessels, and our income has tanked by more than
50%.
“Given that this is the case, how can anyone justify a
reduction in expenditure of just 0.6%? We cannot be the only nation bucking the
trend?
“Saudi Arabia, a nation with a much stronger production
capacity than ours and with a larger global market share, as well as foreign
reserves that is 12 times ours, has slashed her budget by almost 30%. Ditto for
other oil economies”.
“These are the types of sacrifices that we need in a time of
crisis. We do not need empty gestures that will lead to empty treasuries.
“In times of austerity, no nation, not the least a mono
product economy, such as ours, should be living in luxury at a leadership
level”.
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