Different Shades of Buhari
President Muhammadu Buhari has sought the approval of National Assembly, for external borrowing plan of $29.960billion for execution of key infrastructural projects across the country between 2016 and 2018 and virement of N180.8 billion in the 2016 budget for provision of needed votes for some sectors.
The president made the requests in two separate letters to both the Senate President, Bukola Saraki and Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon Yakubu Dogara which were read on the floor of both chambers yesterdays.
President Buhari in the external borrowing plan explained that targeted projects cuts across all sectors with special emphasis on infrastructure , Agriculture, Health, Education , Water supply , Growth and employment generation , poverty reduction through social safety net programmes and governance and financial management reforms etc.
According to him,” the total cost of the projects and programmes under the borrowing (rolling) plan is $29.960billion made up of proposed projects and programmes loan of $11.274billion, Special National Infrastructure projects $10.686billion, Euro bonds of $4.5 billion and Federal Government budget support of $3.5billion “.
He explained further that the loan was very necessary in view of the serious infrastructural deficit, the nation is facing.
‘Considering the huge infrastructure deficit currently being experienced in the country and the enormous financial resources required to fill the gap in the face of dwindling resources and the inability of our annual budgetary provisions to bridge the deficit, it has become necessary to resort to prudent external borrowing to bridge the financing gap, which will largely be applied to key infrastructure projects namely Power, Railway and roads projects among others”, he added.
Buhari in the virement request, said the N180 billion would be moved from monies already appropriated for special Intervention programmes both recurrent and capital for funding of critical recurrent and capital items.
He said the request arose due to a number of reasons including: shortfalls in provisions for personnel costs; inadequate provision abinitio for some items like the amnesty programme; Continuing requirements to sustain the war against insurgency; and depreciation of the Naira.
The letter reads in part: “In the course of implementing the 2016 Appropriation Act, several MDAs have presented issues pertaining to salary shortfalls, the settlement of part of which has led to the depletion of the Public Service Wage Adjustment (PSWA). This Vote, which had a provision of N33, 597,400,000, now has a balance of N2, 758,296,000.
“The Committee on Salary Shortfalls, set up by the Honourable Minister of Finance, has come up with a figure of N41, 875,983,020 as the amount required settling salary shortfalls of non-lPPlS MDAs. Similarly, most of the lPPlS MDAs have already been notified by the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation (OAGF) that they would soon be locked out of the IPPIS Platform as their Personnel Cost budgets would not cover salaries for the rest of the year.
“The lPPlS Department in the OAGF has forwarded a figure of N20, 058,204,856 as the sum required to cover the shortfall in salaries of lPPlS MDAs. The Security-related lines in the Service Wide Vote, specifically Operations internal for the Armed Forces (N13billion) and Operation Lafiya Dole (N8billion) have all been totally released while the Nigerian Air Force needs about (N12,708,367,476) to cover the foreign exchange differentials in the procurement of its critical capabilities.
“The Contingency Vote of N12billion has a balance of only N1, 827,570,443. It is considered necessary to augment this vote in the light of frequently emerging contingencies.
“Only N20, 000,000,000 (already fully released) was provided in the 2016 budget for the Niger Delta Amnesty Programme. Consequently, the allowances to ex-militants have only been paid up to May 2016. This is creating a lot of restiveness and compounding the security challenge in the Niger Delta.
“The Provision for NYSC in the 2016 budget is inadequate to cater for the number of corpers to be mobilized this year. In fact, an additional N8.5billion is required to cover the backlog of 129, 469 corps members who are currently due for call-up but would otherwise be left out till next year due to funding constraints. Similarly, the provision for meal subsidy for the Unity Colleges is inadequate for the number of students in the schools.
“Also, there was no provision for feeding of cadets at the Police Academy, Wudil, Kano. These situations are hampering the operations of the affected agencies. The provision for Statutory Transfer to the Public Complaints Commission (PCC) was reduced to N2, 000,000,000 in 2016 from N4, 000,000,000 in 2015. Consequently, the agency is experiencing difficulty in paying salaries of its personnel as and when due.
“Due to the devaluation of the Naira, the budgetary provisions for the foreign missions are nolonger sufficient to cover all their costs.
“The provision for Presidential Initiative for the North East (N12, 000,000,000) has a balance of less than N1.5bn, and there continue to be emerging challenges with the Internally Displaced Persons (lDPs) in the zone”.
The breakdown of the virement proposal shows that N71.8 billion is for public service wage adjustment, N35billion for Amnesty programme, N19.8billion for mobilization of remaining batches of Youth corps members for the year etc
Culled from:
https://breaking.com.ng/nigeria/buhari-seeks-nass-approval-for-30bn-loan-n180bn-virement-in-2016-budget/
On the above subject, my very good friend has this to say;
If you ever abused Jonathan for going to NASS to borrow $1Bn but are quiet now that Buhari wants to borrow x30 what Jonathan requested for, you need to go to whatever god you serve so that those gods would take you as sacrifice. *You don't deserve to dwell amongst men.
Someone responded to my friends saying thus: Jonathan was selling crude 12O dollars per barrel and was shipping 2.5 barrel a day so no need to borrow more money, do we have exactly the same situation today in Nigeria??
Another responded thus: Revenue accruing from hike in petroleum prices and new "illigal" stamp duty charges alone far compensates for high oil price during GEJ's era.
Another simple logic, if oil price was $150/barrel during GEJ's time and over $50/barrel today, why is Buhari not asking for $3billion?
Another simple logic, if oil price was $150/barrel during GEJ's time and over $50/barrel today, why is Buhari not asking for $3billion?
Well I think We must learn to think through this Govt's intentions. They are here to destroy our future - it is an elitist Govt. QED....
What says YOU???
#borrowborrow
#ogachyned
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