Massive splurging behind Nigeria’s deficit budgets

By Lawrence Agbo

Former Senator Abubakar Yusuf has criticised Nigeria’s budgeting framework, arguing that Nigeria’s budgets should ideally be surplus, but have remained deficit-driven due to what he described as “massive splurging.”

Yusuf made the remarks on Thursday during an appearance on Channels Television’s Politics Today, where he questioned the effectiveness of the envelope budgeting system used in the country.

“Our budget ought to have been a surplus budget, but all our budgets have been deficit financing budgets, and it is because of our massive splurging,” Yusuf said.

Explaining further, he criticised routine procurement practices within the civil service, citing repeated purchases of equipment as unnecessary expenditure.

“The government is spending money on what it does not need. For example, equipment for running civil service — every year you budget for computers and vehicles. You do not need these items every year,” he added.

Yusuf also blamed persistent capital project failures and recurring deficit budgets on poor planning, weak implementation, and excessive government spending.

“One of the basic problems is that before you budget, you should have a plan. The envelope system we have been operating is budgeting before planning,” he said. “When you give an envelope that is contrary to the plan, whether plus or minus, there is no way that plan can be properly implemented. Therefore, it is bound to fail.”

The former lawmaker noted that he had consistently opposed the envelope system even during his time in the Senate, arguing that it has contributed to poor capital budget performance.

“I have always said it, even when I was in the Senate, that we should get off the envelope system of budgeting. It is not good for us, and it is not going to work well. We have always struggled to meet even 60 percent of our capital budget over the years,” he stated.

Another major factor undermining budget execution, Yusuf identified are poor and inconsistent release of funds.

“When you make a budget and you do not have a practical or adequate way of releasing money for the project, that too becomes a major problem. If the release is poor, there is no way the budget will be executed,” he said.