Not too hasty to
conclude on Buhari
until we see transparency & accountability in this regime. He has
been in
office wasted 7 months of the nation's time studying the books he said,
well
then let's see how that translates to national benefits if he is able to
implement the budget when passed and record a successful performance
only then
would he become the Hero and True Patriot.
His Minister of Finance enthused
that we must borrow to finance the budget and now Buhari tells BBC that we will
not borrow because he is blocking the leakages in government agencies NNPC, Customs,
Immigration, BPE, NERC, So you want to know why NERC is increasing people's
burden higher rates being fixed Feb '16
These sorts of discordant tones from
state actors usually ruin regimes.
http://sunnewsonline.com/new/nigeriall-need-foreign-loans-to-finance-2016-budget-minister/
NOW READ MR PRESIDENT ON HIS BUDGET FUNDING
President Muhammadu Buhari has explained that despite the fall in
the international price of crude oil, measures taken to block leakages
in the nation’s revenue generating agencies would ensure enough cash to
fund the N6 trillion budget he recently submitted to the National
Assembly.
The president gave the explanation in an interview with Mansur Liman
of the BBC Hausa service on Christmas eve. He also spoke on his
government’s ‘success’ at defeating the Boko Haram insurgents.
PREMIUM TIMES’ Sani Tukur translated the interview;
Q: You recently submitted the biggest budget
estimates in Nigeria’s history to the National Assembly, and this came
at a time the price of oil has drastically gone down in world markets.
How do you intend to get money to fund the budget?
Buhari: As a government, we inherited N1.5 trillion
domestic debt and when foreign debt is added we have about N2.2
trillion. Everybody knows Nigeria is not a poor country, we are rich,
and we have human resources, the problem had been that leadership did
not take seriously, curbing corrupt tendencies.
Apart from highlighting our debt profile, we have also shown the
changes we have made in the Customs for instance, how; much we are
making from the Customs service, how much from petroleum, that is NNPC;
how much we are making from the ports. There have been lots of leakages
in these sectors. If we block these leakages, we would make much more
money to run the country despite the fall in the price of oil.
Q: Are you sure you can block all the leakages?
Because if one looks at it, it was just the leaders of these agencies
that were changed while most of the lieutenants who were part of the
system of the “leakages” are still in place. What do you think would
change to make sure that “business as usual” does not continue and
Nigeria would get those monies?
A: It is generally believed that a fish begins to
rot from the head; once the head is rotten, the whole body is also
rotten. We have tried to remove all the heads of the organisations, and
most of the lieutenants have been changed. A lot is happening in this
government that people do not appear to understand; many permanent
secretaries of ministries have been changed; we used to have 42
ministers, now we have 36 because the constitution requires that each
state of the federation must have a minister; we used to have 42
ministries, now we have 24.
Q: You have also allocated 30 per cent of the budget to capital projects; what informed that decision?
A: It is a must. Remember during the campaigns, we
said Nigeria is facing three things and nobody disputed that assertion.
Firstly; there was widespread insecurity, war in the north east, while
the country’s oil was being stolen at random in the south; secondly;
there is massive unemployment, 62 per cent of the nation’s population
are youth from the age of 35 years downward; most of them are
unemployed, including those who went to school and those who did not,
that is a serious problem. Therefore, it has become necessary to restore
peace and create employment.
That is why we are returning to agriculture and mineral resources.
Thirdly, bribery and corruption was basically suffocating the country.
If we don’t kill these monsters, this country would go down.
That is why those who stole monies meant for arms procurement and
shared it among themselves are being arrested and are being shown
documents, so that they would be asked to refund the money or face
prosecution; we would use those documents to prove what they stole,
collect all the assets acquired from the proceeds and then jail them.
Q: You have initiated a programme in which poor and
vulnerable Nigerians would be paid N5,000 monthly; what have you put in
place to ensure that there is justice and fairness in the running of
this programme?
A: It is not possible for everyone needing it to get
it; but the Federal Government has said it would collaborate with the
states and local governments. At the local government level, almost
everyone knows each other. It would be easy to identify those to give
who would go into trading and how to get it back. It would be like a
cooperative and we all know how it operates. Also, state governments
would identify those who have capacity to employ more people and all we
need to do is to empower them. Our people already know how to go about
implementing these modalities to create employment for the citizens.
Q: You earlier mentioned Boko Haram. After your
assumption of office, you gave a deadline of December to bring an end to
Boko Haram insurgency. We are almost at the end of December, does it
mean you and the armed forces have failed?
A: I want people to understand that after I settled
down and got good grasp of what the country is going through, we removed
all the service chiefs and appointed new ones. We also undertook an
investigation and found out how the monies meant for arms procurement
were diverted and shared by officials in the last administration. They
sent the boys to the war front without arms and ammunition, leading some
of them to mutiny after which they were arrested and detained.
We have been able to raise money and fund the war. Go and ask the
people of Borno, Yobe and Adamawa; how many of their local governments
were under the control of insurgents? And how many are currently still
under the insurgents?
May be we would not win the war completely by the end of the month,
but the insurgents have now resorted to putting on explosive vests on
young children, mostly girls aged 15 and below and then sending them to
markets, mosques and churches to detonate. Boko Haram themselves know
that the era of them taking over communities and local governments are
over. If people would be fair to us, they would know that the Nigerian
Army has basically met the deadline and are winning the war. You cannot
find any significant number of Boko Haram members in Adamawa, and Yobe,
only may be in about three local governments of Borno in the area around
our borders with Chad Republic. They are not in a position to threaten
Nigeria now, so we have won.
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