Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala's office is responsible for the budget
These are critical times. Nigeria has never been in a situation like this in my life time. Apart from the period of the civil war, this is the most critical time to be a Nigerian. Our resources have been mismanaged and now we are broke! Our people are being killed not just by extremists but also by the very government that swore to protect lives and property. This piece is about the 2012 budget and its sad realities.
The Basics:
1. The budget of N4.749 trillion assumes an oil price benchmark of $70 a barrel, oil production of 2.45 million barrels per day and zero deduction from Federation Revenues for the fuel subsidy.
2. Despite the above assumptions, the budget contains a deficit of 2.77% of GDP. (The nominal GDP has been estimated by National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) to be about N36 trillion in 2011), so essentially about N1 trillion of the budget is to be borrowed, or relies on exceptional income like privatization proceeds, loans and grants-in-aid.
3. Accordingly, out of the capital budget proposal of N1.32 trillion, only about N300 billion will be available from our federal revenues. If the “subsidy” is not withdrawn, the deficit will be even higher and the FG would then contravene the 3% cap on deficit in the Fiscal Responsibility Act 2007.
4. None of the so-called SURE projects have any NEW source of revenue to finance them other than what have been described above UNLESS:
(1) the oil price benchmark is raised above $70 or
(2) the Naira-Dollar exchange rate allowed to slide thus raising more Naira for the government.
The above assumptions are far-fetched in the current global economy.
Some examples of wasteful spending decisions are itemized below:
5. A review of the budget provisions of 21 out of 50 Ministries, Departments and Agencies revealed the following amounts for some recurrent and capital expenditure items:
• Travel – local and international N13 billion
• Stationery, Magazines, Newspapers, etc. N4.5 billion
• Maintenance of vehicles, furniture, etc. N17 billion
• Training N5 billion
• Fuel and Lubricants for cars, generators, etc N4 billion
• Miscellaneous: welfare packages, refreshments, meals, etc N9 billion
• Acquisition of Computer Software N2.5 billion
• Research and Development: whatever that means! N27 billion
6.
The actual provisions in the budget would be at least twice these amounts, and total about N160 billion of waste. This amount is equal to the amount budgeted for the power sector!
7.
Some examples of some of the wasteful spending under “Research & Development” are N2.498 billion for “citizen’s call centres” under the Ministry of Communications & Technology, N1.2 billion in the Ministry of Agriculture to incorporate commodity marketing companies! The Ministry of Foreign Affairs wants to spend N322 million to acquire “computer software”. This is very expensive software indeed!
8. A lot has already been written about the budgets in the Presidency. The following are some weird examples of what has been included in the State House (Villa) budget:
9. Overhead is about N7.2 billion, or about N20 million per day to keep our President and VP happy. Their local travel budget is N724 million or N2 million per day, including weekends, while their international travel budget ix N951 million or nearly N3 million per day.
10. The president’s office has N285 million to hand out as “welfare package”, N265 million to buy computers, N150 million to buy scanners, N161 million for buses, N295 million for new furniture, and N1.8 billion to “maintain existing furniture, office and residential quarters”.
11. The intend to buy desktops for N300,000 each, laptops for N314,000 each and scanners for a whopping N190,000. The public address system in the President, VP’s office and Banquet Hall will cost N150 million! The SGF wants to spend N65 million on tree planting. Note that planting a million trees in Abuja over 4 years cost the FCT Administration less than N50 million then!
Conclusion: There is a lot of waste, and misplaced spending priorities in the Budget which can be reviewed to free more funds to finance subsidies, capital investment and improved governance. Do you remember #budgetscam ? This is worse than that!
Now you know why government doesn’t mind killing all of us because they will not free funds from the loots of their corrupt friends, they will not cut their salaries and allowances and they will not reduce their number of aides. Instead of all that, they’d rather hurt Nigerians by all means possible.
You can share this information with as many people as possible. Information has proven useful in this struggle.
#OccupyNigeria we will not tire, we will not falter, we will not fail
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For GÕ??D????? sake, this wasteful it seems our government don’t av †?? fear of GÕ??D????? anymore. This N??????†? fresh air Jonathan promised us. U????? can imagine billions of naire spent on furniture mentainance alone what happened ???? †?? old ones when an average nigerians can’t afford Kerosines I?????n????? their stoves I?????n????? †?? villages.this Í? N??????†? democracy ß’cos they don’t av †?? people I?????n????? their heart. GÕ??D????? punish them all, all †?? pple that don’t av us I?????n????? mind they ????????????? after their pocket. Í? left for GÕ??D????? ???? judge them. Av a nice evening.
This is absolute madness. GEJ & his coup plotters — Sambo, Ngozi, Sanusi…..against Nigeria are the Cabal. What a government!!! Telling common Nigerians to pay for its failure. This excuse to remove the PMS subsidy is the most stupid, lame that even my 3yr niece can’t give. Ngozi is the biggest disappointment to Nigerians. For GEJ, I’m not surprised as he lacks everything that qualifies someone as a Real man- election campaigns said it all. It is time we rescued ourselves as Nigerians from these wicked people in power- our rulers
This wastages explain why recurrent expenditure accounts for over 70% of the bugdet, for goodness sake, a desktop for 300k, some things happen in nija
with all these kind of wastful spends which ve been going on in d corridors power for long ve got 2 stop. I believe wth dis protests nation wide they now kw we kw wat’s going on in govt. Dis fight is not jst abt d removal of d subsidy bt d removal of corruption in govt
President Jonathan and His govt. can be describe as the ‘Tale of Rich & Poor men in the Bible’ where the rich folk had so many fat cows but rather asked his servants to go over to the poor man’s only and signle calf to get it, prepare it for his guest. That’s how wicked our Govt. and FEC are to the poor masses of this our great Nation.
“May our Great God avenge the cries of the poor masses of Nigeria” Amen
Whaoh quite revealing, this is why we have to deliver ourselves and this country from this profligacy, stand up and say NO to these economic terrorists pretending as leaders. Also say NO to executive, legislative and judicial terrorism. God bless Nigeria- Amen
If this is true, then I don’t have any confidence in this government again. They have betrayed my trust.
Na wa ooooooo! we need guns and bombs to just kill all this guys once and for all. So the next person will sit tight
#OccupyNigeria. Thank God you are a Nigerian, a blessing to this course, bro i appreciate your effort and we will do our parts in our little ways.
#OccupyyourNeighbour now if you can not make it to the streets
I see this subsidy issue as adding injury to insult!,with or without the “subsidy”,petroleum products (*pp) are meant to be cheap or rather easily affordable by all.the government and its cronies can continue side-lining the excess money they’ve been “taking” since and not try to “take more”!.
About 6years ago,the subsidy on diesel was removed and we’ve heard nothing about it till date!.
Our refineries are meant to be repaired fully,then new ones built to handle the petroleum and a large percent of the power sector efficiently,then he can remove the “subsidy” as we will then be equiped to hande the demands of the nation.
Nigeria,presently,exports crude oil and imports *pp,and its present leaders wants to compare us with ghana,chad and countries that mostly import crude oil!,#shame!,Nigaeria is richly endowed with oil,a nation with “refiner(ies)”,we have no business importing *pp.
If the refineries are fixed,re-build or built,sole distibuition or licence is retained by NNPC,and importation of *pp banned,I believe we’d have a leap-frog start!
Our leaders should stop tryingg to decieve us,the wool has dropped from our eyes,for instance,http://tinyurl.com/6vw5oke.
They talk about using they “recovered funds” to complete pending project!,if there were no funds for they project,why were they approved and awarded!,after “taking and misusing” funds,they come up with crappy and illogical excuses,and crappier and amusing solutions!
Dear government!,it has been insults to your poeple,now you wound us!,we won’t take no injury from you,and sooner than you think,we’ll take no insult.
The people are aware,so,”men in power” beware!
It is absurd. This people should know that our stuggle is not for subsidy, it is to end corruption. May God help us deliver our course.
Let these people come out openly and tell us they want see us suffering since we didn’t vote for them, instead of tormenting us indirectly.
Before u can say some one or some set of people are defroding u u most have goten a fact, & d best way about it is to work on the fact. If marketers ar bringing in 200 litres & using paper to claim 1000 litre, then I think the best thing to do is give them right to bring in only 200 litres & pay them subsidy for that rather than ask the poor masses to pay for d 1000 litres indirectly.
@Omojuwa, i will onlynpray for you and all others in this struggle alike, we will all live to see a better Nigeria, amin. I am completely taking aback, could all this be true and yet the government still demand more tax from us by hiking fuel price, haba. My God, my leaders dont know You exist certainly. some1 needs to call jonathan to other. RUN, GOODLUCK RUN.
No retarded comments? I just spent 6 minutes looking for any Pro-Govt comments here. Ladies & Gentlemen, I can proudly say that there are none.*smiles*
We ask and challenge the federal government of Nigeria to immediately take the following steps for a better Nigeria:
Effect a radical slash (i.e.: not less than a 60% cut) in the salaries and allowances of the president, senators , house of reps, governors, ministers , commissioners, councillor etc
No more first class tickets for government officials when going on trips abroad . They should sit in economy and interact with the people they govern / represent.
No more medical health treatment abroad at the expense of our country’s funds. They the Nigerian government officials should proudly use our Nigerian health service. If they want treatment abroad, they should use their own hard earned wages.
No more fleets of cars as convoys. Also low budget cars should be used by government officials unlike the so much expensive / luxury cars they use.
The minimum wage of N18,000.00 in Nigeria should be reviewed and increased. Salaries of the Nigerian Police Force, teachers and other key careers within the NIgerian society needs to be reviewed for a more reasonable increase.
Government officials should not be allowed to own private universities, how can Obasanjo and Atiku own private Universities when they should be the ones making sure our federal and state universities provide the best educational services in the whole of Africa.
Oh and also, Mr president should please get the best chef in Nigeria and buy food stuffs and this chef will cook for him and his immediate Family. Because I don’t understand how Mr President and friends feeding cost N1billion naira per annum.
Circulate and add your own bit of what you think needs to be done to get a better Nigeria. Thank you ! OCCUPY NIGERIA
We must help dis country to survive.
To make a country good, the people need to protest enmass like we r doing at Ojota freedom park and d media too will give facts like omojuwa is doing. How many of our print media give us d break down of d budget. They need to share from d blame. Next election will surely be issue based ¬ party based as usual.
I have always maintained in own opinion a sincere military govt such as the buhari/idiagbon regime benefits nigeria more than this wasteful democracy all in the name of global integration we need to do away with this theiving lot if we must survive as a people.The singular problem of this country is CORRUPTION in the guise of governance all the political parties are full of greedy men that have milked nigeria dry and are still sucking even now their children have been tutored and are being put as replacement by their aged parents eg Dimeji Bankole we must resist this primary enslavement now!
What in the name of God is happening? What kind of govt is this? What kind of President is this? What kind of MOF & MONP is Ngozi &her colleague both with Phd in economics? Are we doomed? Jinxed? Something is terribly wrong somewhere!
From generation to generation, God go n punish d so called leaders that are looting d economy n making d masses to suffer
We will not accept these, this FG is wicked. Its a battle we must fight to a conclusive end. Enough of this corrupt act Nigerians are suffering and dying. Our road are death trap or hospitals are now death dungeon, schools are turned to hoodlums centres, while our leaders are enjoying at the detriment of the citizenry. Let’s occupy Nigeria!!! Let’s say NO to corrupt leadership!!! Let’s embrace good governance, Nigeria belongs to all of us!!!
why will some wicked men in their 60s, who had free education in their days, enjoyed such academic peace which was not be-deviled by needless strikes, had dignifiying employment, settled in a home, bought lands, cars, build houses and aquired shares in big companies for themself and their children, be the ‘SHAME’ set of people troubling US, they mortgaged our future, stole so much than they can live to enjoy, foolishly sat in the leadership with deregulated GRAMMARS, privitized CONCSIENCE, merged covetiousness and everything they once ENJOYED was a DISASTER for us (THE YOUTHS). call them to ACCOUNT, they can run but they can not HIDE! their is PAYDAY HERE!
It is Awfully abysmal, regrettably lugubrious, these cantankerous tyrants forgot that ‘the trepidation of the ultimate is the instigation of sagacity’ -villax
What configuration of Desktop Computer was to be purchased at 300k for greek sake, i can list out a desktop pc with exclusive features yet i bet in Nigeria IT MARKET it will never go for 300K .that price i affirm was doctored. let All IT COMPLIANT ppl raise this alarm, we are not babies. So much of LOOTING is going On. SILENCE NA CRIME OOO!
This is the mother of all wastefulness»»» Lil wonder Nigerians have to die for the survival of the few so called ELITE. NO RETREAT, NO SURRENDER«»»We shall overcome soonest!!!
All this information exposed thanks to social networks and the blessing of the internet creates awareness, and gives us this new attitude we have put up – Of unity in our yell and struggle for justice that surprises the cynic in us still. It is the begining of a revolution. We are capable of more than we’d imagined and shall take back what is ours. We could only be silent for so long.
This is rather pathetic! I regret casting my votes for PDP. Is this the kind of governance they pomised us? God wld indeed judge them all. The fight continues and there’s no looking back.
OLE at the highest level
The issue is nt jst abt subsidy alone,bt good governance.the question i keep asking my sef,wen are we goin to get it right in dis country?every 1 thought goodluck ll b our messiah bt it turns otherway,since his assumption in last 2yrs what has he done?by next year they ll b talking abt another election,what is dis country turning to?it is only God that ll save us,not even OCCUPYNIGERIA,dis battle is of d lord!
Mmmh.This is more than wate. IT IS SCANDALOUS. In the 20th Century, our leaders should stop considering themselves as Emperors. they are hired servants for a particular length of time and we can terminate the contract constitutionally or the Bouzazia style. Remember that Ngozi was paid in Dollars, not Naira. By the way, why should a minister who resigned be called back again? As for the CBN Governor, the moment he started getting International recognition left, Right and centre, I knew he was being derailed. The world is now a Global village, but each and every country looks after its own first, within the Global contex. Recently UK refused to toe the line with other EU countries because that policy would have impacted negetively on its citizens. The West is in trouble financially. What is the rationale of copying western fiscal policies? There is always an alternative way of doing things. If the present set of leaders dont have the answers, thats a failure and they should quit. We are not in dearth of Brains in this country.
Whenever I am loosing steam for Nigeria…I will always come back to read this thing….we might not remove corruption altogether but its our collective destiny to start this awakening and to face the fight with corruption headlong…Omojuwa….from the bottom of my heart I say “God bless you real good”
Whenever I am loosing steam for Nigeria…I will always come back to read this thing….we might not remove corruption altogether but its our collective destiny to start this awakening and to face the fight with corruption headlong…Omojuwa….from the bottom of my heart I say “God bless you real good”@vulunteer
Inhuman that is why he refuse to resgn frm d offce nd he is sayin there is no money to pay fr workers salary Lamido Sanusi warch
This is crazy! ? just but wonder how a government bound by law can be this wasteful. What on earth do they need as computer worth 300k for. The question is, do they really make use of the computer systems in their various offices? We’ve been to government offices all over an observed that the vague method of recording is still the talk of the hour.Haha, na server una wan dey use as work stations naw abi. What a SHAME. We have economists which cannot really make do with the applicability of the many theories they’ve been privileged to study.
This must stop. Wasteful spending must stop, corruption must stop. God bless Nigerians ??? God bless Nigeria.
Jide
This is crazy! ? just but wonder how a government bound by law can be this wasteful. What on earth do they need as computer worth 300k for. The question is, do they really make use of the computer systems in their various offices? We’ve been to government offices all over an observed that the vague method of recording is still the talk of the hour.Haha, na server una wan dey use as work stations naw abi. What a SHAME. We have economists which cannot really make do with the applicability of the many theories they’ve been privileged to study.
This must stop. Wasteful spending must stop, corruption must stop. God bless Nigerians ??? God bless Nigeria.
Jide
Yeah its time for D????? truth ???? be told we have endured enough,may God help us i?????n????? nigeria
We know them, they are not our leaders, they are the looters parading themselves as our ruler. God is watching them, let them continue to loot, we shall continue to ask for our right and I know that they shall surely perish with all their families and their wealth.
I neva knew we voted a glutton as a president who spends billion of naira on refereshment. does he feed all his poverty strikened family in aso-rock? what d u xpect frm someone dat was once ‘shoeless’ he wld want to make up for d numb of yrs he has walked barefooted as if nigerian were d one who inflicted his generation with poverty so we hav to pay for it! is it nt annoying, wen a person is having billions of naira in his acct wen anoda person cannot boast of ordinary #5000 in d same country we both belong
Dis is massive financial malfeasance. Our administrators, are a bunch of monumental disgrace to d human race. dey have succeded in plundering its citizenry into abject poverty & pauperism. 4 ow long are we going 2 continue wit dis monsters @ d helm of affairs our leaders are self centered, diabolical, wicked & all sort u cld tink of. Dis numerical amount is preposterous.
I thk all we need is war
If at all Goodluck want any transformation policy to our great nation! What we need as citizen is direct benefit dat people we see and not FSR policy introduced by his cabinet. Thank u 4 dis information.
Nice respond in return of this question with solid arguments and telling everything about that.
Can someone please send me a copy of the 2012 budget. Email [email protected] for research purposes. Tnx