President Muhammadu Buhari on Tuesday said nothing would stop his administration from recovering the country’s stolen money, no matter how long it would take and wherever the money was hidden.
He made the reassurance as he presented the estimates of the 2016 budget to a joint session of the National Assembly in Abuja.
President of the Senate, Bukola Saraki, chaired the session, which also had the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mr. Yakubu Dogara, in attendance.
Deputy Senate President, Mr. Ike Ekweremadu; Deputy Speaker, Mr. Yussuff Lasun, and all principal officers of the two chambers as well as ministers, attended the session.
Buhari had arrived in the chamber of the House of Representatives, venue of the joint session, at exactly 10.01am, just one minute behind the 10am he had said he would come to the legislature for the budget ritual.
He came in company with the Vice-President, Mr. Yemi Osinbajo.
Addressing the lawmakers, Buhari re-stated his zeal to fight corruption, noting that the mindless stealing of the past caused the economic distress of today.
“We have demonstrated a strong will to fight corruption. I am sure you will agree that the sheer scale of corruption and impunity of the past explains in part, the economic challenges we now face.
“On these initiatives, and the many more to come, we shall not be deterred. We will pursue the recovery of everything that belongs to the people of Nigeria. No matter where it is hidden. No matter how long it will take.”
Buhari presented a total budget size of N6.08tn on Tuesday, up from the N6.04tn contained in the 2016-2018 Medium Term Expenditure Framework, which he earlier proposed to the legislature.
He kept the crude oil benchmark at the $38 per barrel as contained in the MTEF, though the President himself admitted before the lawmakers that oil had dropped to $32.
The budget has a revenue projection of N3.86tn, leaving a deficit of N2.22tn, an equivalent of “2.16 per of Nigeria’s GDP”, while the overall debt profile will be 12 per cent of GDP.
To fund the deficit, the President announced a borrowing plan of N1.84tn, made up of N984bn (domestic) and N900bn (foreign).
“Over the medium term, we expect to increase revenues and reduce overheads, to bring the fiscal deficit down to 1.3 per cent of GDP by 2018.
“In 2016, oil related revenues are expected to contribute N820bn. Non-oil revenues, comprising Company Income Tax, Value Added Tax, Customs and Excise duties, and Federation Account levies, will contribute N1.45tn.
“Finally, by enforcing strict compliance with the Fiscal Responsibility Act, 2007 and public expenditure reforms in all MDAs, we have projected up to N1.51tn from independent revenues,” he stated.
The budget made a provision of N1.8tn for capital projects, up from the N557bn budgeted in 2015, in what Buhari explained was for his desire to achieve 30 per cent capital implementation next year.
On the recurrent side, Buhari proposed to spend a total of N2.65tn, including a separate vote of N300bn for special intervention programmes.
The actual recurrent figure is N2.35tn, which he said was lower than the N2.59tn budgeted in 2015 in “fulfilment of our promise to run a lean government.”
There is a provision of N1.36tn for the servicing of local and domestic debts.
He explained that the budget would primarily “stimulate the economy ” by making it competitive enough to generate employment and address the challenges faced by the most vulnerable groups in Nigeria.
According to the President, a list of those classified as the most vulnerable, is already being compiled.
A summary of the sectoral allocations indicated that education had the lion’s share of N369.6bn, followed by defence with N294.5bn.
The health sector got N221.7bn, while interior (including the police) was given N145.3bn.
Works, power and housing had a combined provision of N433.4bn, while transport sector received– N202.0bn.
Buhari also reinforced the commitment of his administration to combat insurgency, but he was silent on the December 31 deadline for routing the Boko Haram elements.
He announced a robust plan to recruit 500,000 unemployed graduates and NCE holders to address teacher-shortage in public schools across the Federation.
He promised that, with assurances from the Central Bank of Nigeria, the current challenges faced by the business community in accessing forex, would be resolved, in addition to improving on the value of the Naira.
The President’s speech was not categorical on the removal of fuel subsidy, except mentioning that the pump price of petrol would be retained at N87 “for now.”
He added, “Although we are working to diversify our economy, we will not lose sight of the need to restructure the oil and gas sector, which has been marred by corruption and plagued with inefficiencies.
“Accordingly, I have directed the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) to adjust its pricing template to reflect competitive and market-driven components.
“We believe this can lower input costs and attain efficiency savings that will enable PPPRA to keep the selling price for all marketers of petrol at N87 per litre for now.”
On the long queues at filling stations, he remarked, “The current fuel scarcity with long queues at petrol stations all over the country causing social dislocation is very unfortunate.
“Government profoundly apologises to Nigerians for this prolonged hardship and misery. It is as a result of market speculators and resistance to change by some stakeholders. Government is working very hard to end these shortages and bring fuel to the pumps all over the country.”
Lawmakers intermittently clapped for Buhari, as he delivered the budget speech, lasting about 19minutes.
Both Saraki and Dogara also addressed the session, with the former promising that the legislature would pass the budget after it had done the necessary scrutiny on it.
Dogara commended Buhari for deviating from what had lately become a practice of delegating officials of government to lay the budget estimates before the National Assembly.
The speaker added, “Indeed change has also come to the Executive. It was fast becoming a norm that the President seats in the Villa and submits the budget estimates to the Parliament by post, thereby shunning the opportunity which today’s occasion normally presents the President to interact with the legislature and also talk directly to Nigerians about the budget.
“I was afraid that, with the revolution in science and technology now, the President, this time around, was going to either email or tweet the budget estimates to the National Assembly.
” Let me also commend Mr. President on the general structural improvements that are apparent on the face of the document, it gives a positive pointer to the quality of the contents.”
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