By Omoniyi Salaudeen
As the debate rages in the National Assembly over the 2024 budget proposal presented by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu recently, Senator Sefiu Adegbenga Kaka, has pointed out the need for a review of sectoral allocation in this interview.
The 2024 budget presented by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to the National Assembly appears to be the biggest in our recent history. But some people have described it as a tall ambition. What is your take on this?
If you are considering the budget in terms of naira value, your assertion may be right. It is indisputably the highest budget ever. But whatever anybody may say about ambitious or not being ambitious, it is a known fact that if we dollarize the budget, it is far from being up to expectation. So, it is not challenging enough at all. I believe it is achievable if all Nigerians are dedicated and believe in what the target is all about. The starting point is to block all the leakages to the barest minimum. If that is done, up to 30 or 40 per cent of what is required would have been saved from the past and current leakages in our system. If we up our revenue target, most especially local production, I personally believe it is achievable. It is only by increasing in our productivity that tax generation can be raised. So, all hands must be on deck.
On this issue of tax revenue, there is this fear about the possible imposition of additional burden on the ordinary people. Otherwise, how do you think the government can strike a balance between the projection of 18 per cent to budget ratio and the need to provide safety net for the vulnerable segment of the society so that they will not be overburdened?
No, there is no need to over-burden the lowly placed people. You can raise tax for the higher income earners either private or corporate. But for the lowly ones, there has to be a balance if that 18 per cent ratio is to be achieved. The government can give small and medium scale enterprise incentive and also allow the middle class and the lowly individuals to breathe.
The budget is predicated on $77 per barrel benchmark. Is this also achievable considering the vagaries of the international market price of crude oil?
Right from the era of former President Olusegun Obasanjo, I have always spoken against under budgeting any time we do medium-term and expenditure framework. Sometimes, there could be variation of up to 50 per cent at the end of the day. There was an occasion when crude oil price was $60 and we were budgeting on $30. It was the National Assembly that raised it higher. When you raise the benchmark, taking into consideration all factors, then you will know that you have to work extra hard to meet your target. That is why I started with the leakages and inefficacies we have in our system. Most often, it is the common people that are being made to subsidize the inefficiency of government. We have over-bloated civil service and agency, many organizations running the same, but paralleled duties. Some people are sitting in Abuja enjoying all the goodies claiming to be working for Nigerians who are in Enugu, Ibadan and Borno. That is why despite all the humongous amount of money we budget year in year out our roads remain impassible. That is why we have NNPC with capital in Abuja and yet they keep incurring losses year in year out and nobody has deemed it necessary to block the frivolous spending. We need efficiency improvement. What I am saying is that it is not too challenging to achieve $77 per barrel target. Who knows what is going to be the situation in Russia and Ukraine? Who knows what is going to be the outcome of the face-off between Israel and Palestinian? Who knows what is coming our way as far as the price of crude oil is concerned. We have no control over it. We cannot reject the goodies when it comes. We should also prepare ourselves by saving for the rainy day. Our assumption should be that the situation is not going to stablise to the extent of affecting negatively what has been used as our expenditure framework. The summary of what I am saying is that a challenging budget will provoke hard work and incentive for people to work.
With the performance bond that the ministers have been made to sign, are you expecting a different approach to budget implementation?
You are coming back to what I have been saying. When there is no specific target for MDAs that are already running parallel programmes, there is no way you can effectively measure their performance. You will find some scoring as low as 30 per cent budget performance in capital realm, but 100 per cent in recurrent. That is not acceptable. That is not how to run a country. As far as I am concerned, it is a good thing that the president has given the ministers target. It is the right step in the right direction. But beyond that, we have to domestic our appetite, we have to maintain discipline. It should not be do as I say, but do as I do.
What role do you expect the National Assembly to play in minimizing unnecessary waste and leakages?
Any excess crude oil account that may possibly accrue to the federation account is transitory; you accumulate it back to the consolidated revenue fund and appropriate it accordingly. It should not be frittered away. When excess crude oil revenue is shared between federal, states and local governments, they see it as free money, unbudgeted money and spend it as such. We don’t want that. When you fail to plan, you plan to fail. They need to deal with all those who are waiting for the excess crude oil money to fritter away or commit fraud. If there is no repercussion for such action, they will continue. There must be repercussion to serve as deterrent for others.
There is criticism against the disproportionate amount of money assigned to some sectors at the expense of the critical ones. What is your thought about this?
There has always been tendency to starve some sectors of funds and assigning excess money to some less important sectors. A good example is the agric sector. Everybody pays lip service to increase in agricultural productivity, but in reality there is no commensurate budget to achieve the target. If we are going to increase on our irrigation, it has to be well planned. We must provide the necessary inputs at the right time. Time is of essence. If we are determined to achieve the desire for higher productivity in agricultural, there must be value addition. Also, storage facilities and measures to prevent harvest waste must be put in place. We also need to ensure that we have low import content for our industries. By the time we satisfy our food requirement, we can go ahead to satisfy the need of our industries.
Months after the declaration of a state of emergency on food security, not much has been seen in terms of deliverables. Do you think the agric sector has been assigned its rightful place in this budget?
We all need to work the talk. Food production cannot be increased overnight because there is gestation period for every crop. There are those that will mature within one year. There are those that will not be ready until after four years. Mention any tree crop; you will need a minimum of three to four years before you get your result. So, it is not a thing that the present administration will say I want to decree. It won’t happen until the gestation period is achieved. We still have fallow land that we can cultivate. In our current situation where the revenue from crude oil is dwindling, no man should hesitate to go to the farm. If we are determined to achieve food sufficiency, agricultural plantation is inevitable. I could not see that in our budget. Maputo declaration resolved that African countries must assign 10 per cent of their national budget to agriculture for a minimum of five years. From the time of that declaration up till now, we devote only two to three per cent. That is like a drop of water in the ocean. It cannot achieve our target. And that brings indolence to our people because they don’t have the resources and inputs to work with. So, sectoral allocation should be reviewed. The number one security we need is food. We should stop throwing money at problems. Let’s throw money where money is required so that our money can work for us. Let’s work the talk.