Follow Us on Google
Our leaders’ penchant for profligacy came to the fore once again with the N2.17 trillion 2023 supplementary budget, which President Bola Tinubu signed into law recently. Both the Senate and the House of Representatives passed the supplementary appropriation bill on November 2, 2023. Controversy had trailed it after the President submitted it to the National Assembly for approval. The controversy revolved around some items considered to be luxuries, which shouldn’t have been contemplated in this period of hardship in the country.
The number one among them was the presidential yacht said to cost N5 billion. Many Nigerians have argued that such a luxury item is not what Nigeria needs at this point in time. The House of Representatives later scrapped it and transferred the allocation to the student loan component of the budget. The Presidency laboured to explain that the yacht was so-called because of its inherent security features and not that it was meant for the President. The President’s Special Adviser on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, said the navy, under the previous administration of Muhammadu Buhari, ordered for it and that it was an operational navy boat with specialized security gadgets suitable for high-profile operational inspection. We appreciate the reasons the Presidency advanced for procuring this yacht. But spending N5 billion for a yacht in this austere period is sheer misplacement of priority. There are many problems that huge amount of money can solve.
The Federal Government also presented itself as being insensitive to the plight of Nigerians with some of the other items on the supplementary budget. Why, for instance, should the country spend N4 billion to renovate the President’s residential quarters in Abuja? Renovation of the Vice-President’s residence in Abuja will cost N2.5 billion. Renovation of the official residence of the President in Lagos (Dodan Barracks) will cost another N4 billion; that of the Vice-President in Lagos, N3 billion. Construction of office complex in the Presidential Villa will gulp another N4 billion. Purchase of vehicles for the office of the First Lady (an office alien to our constitution) takes the sum of N1.5 billion, while SUVs for the Presidential Villa will cost N2.9 billion. To replace operational vehicles for the Presidency will also take N2.9 billion. A total of N28 billion will be spent on the State House and N12.5 billion on the Presidential Air Fleet.
The essence of a supplementary budget is captured in Section 81(4) of the 1999 Constitution. It is meant to supplement the gaps in the main budget. But from the look of things, the votes for some of the items in the supplementary budget are bigger than the ones in the main budget. For instance, the purchase of vehicles for the State House headquarters had a vote of N1.904 billion in the 2023 Appropriation. In the supplementary budget, the item went up to a total of N5.8 billion. This is anomalous.
Amid the wasteful expenditure, the government plans to add to our public debt stock. The other day, Tinubu requested the approval of the National Assembly for a fresh $7.8 billion and €100 million loans. This is a country still grappling with a public debt burden of over N87.38 trillion; a country where the cost of living has skyrocketed. Tinubu’s fresh request is contrary to his campaign promise to reduce Nigeria’s debt stock. There is nothing wrong with borrowing, if it is to fund capital projects that will yield income. But we cannot continue to borrow when the earlier borrowed funds have not been well managed.
Our leaders must always be mindful of the parlous state of our economy. Naira has continued to wobble in the foreign exchange market. Inflation rate is at an all-time high of 26.72 per cent. Food inflation is higher. The rate of unemployment has ballooned with about 53.4 per cent of youths being unemployed. Nigeria has been the poverty capital of the world since 2018. Currently, over 133 million Nigerians, or 63 per cent of the population, live in multi-dimensional poverty.
We need to get our priorities right. At this point in the nation’s history, we do not need the luxuries the government appears to be indulging in. Last month, National Assembly members received brand new luxury SUVs estimated to cost about N57.6 billion. The current administration has asked citizens to make sacrifices. Nigerians have been making the necessary sacrifices. The cost of fuel jumped from N185 to about N600 from the day the President was inaugurated on May 29, 2023. He removed fuel subsidy without the necessary palliative measures that will cushion the effects on the people. Even some palliative measures that were later announced pale into insignificance when compared to the enormity of the hardship Nigerians face currently.
Thus, it amounts to gross insensitivity on the part of the government to ignore the plight of citizens in its quest for luxuries. Tinubu should quickly discard this proclivity for ostentation and go for economic policies that will boost production, export, job creation and general well-being of the masses.
