April 24, 2015
Written by Victor Oluwasegun and Dele Anofi, Abuja
The stage seems set for a major controversy in the polity, with the passage yesterday of the 2015 Appropriation Bill.
There is no provision for fuel subsidy in the N4,493,363,957,158 estimates approved by the House of Representatives.
The budget has a recurrent (non-debt) expenditure of N2.607, 132,491,708.
Last year, N971.1b was spent on fuel subsidy – same as in 2013.
The N701, 415,465,449 capital expenditure was broken into N556, 995,465,449 for Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDA) and N144, 420,009,000 for statutory transfer.
The budget is N67,433,759,158 higher than the N425,425,930,000 stated in the report that was laid on Wednesday by the joint Chairman, Committees on Appropriations and Finance, John Enoh.
Speaking on the removal of fuel subsidy, Legislative Budget and Research Committee Chairman Opeyemi Bamidele said it was a booby trap set for the in-coming Muhammadu Buhari administration.
According to him, the silence over the removal is capable of setting off the new government on a wrong footing.
He said: “With the withdrawal of fuel subsidy, Nigerians must be educated, else they would be sending Nigerians a wrong signal capable of creating the impression that APC either deceived Nigerians to get their votes or had reneged on its electoral promise as a progressive party.
“The truth and reality of the situation is that the outgoing PDP administration has, through the 2015 budget, removed oil subsidy and it must be made to accept responsibility for it rather than for the incoming APC administration to bask along in the euphoria of having won an election without realizing the booby trap into which they and the Nigerian people are walking into”.
While expressing fears over possible reaction from Nigerians, Bamidele said it was imperative for Nigerians to know who to hold responsible for the development.
“For the record and for posterity purposes, I am opposed to this sudden removal of fuel subsidy and I implore Nigerian patriots to be aware.
“The political economy of this development and its grave implications must not be lost on all stakeholders. This is more so when a new ruling party is coming into power by May 29, 2015.
“To my mind, this is definitely a booby trap for the incoming administration of Gen. Muhammadu Buhari and I hope the All Progressives Congress (APC) as the incoming ruling party will understand the full implications of this and take immediate steps to let Nigerians know where it stands on this matter.
“This is a serious development and a defining moment that calls for the attention of all well meaning Nigerians at home and abroad.
“This is the first time in the last 16 years of our civilian rule that a new political party will be taking over to form a government.
“If care is not taken, this matter is capable of making the incoming government morally dead on arrival, except the issues are promptly dealt with in a way that the critical stakeholders, including the civil society, corporate Nigeria, political class and the generality of Nigerians will know the true state of affairs,” he warned.
The budget that scaled third reading after it was passed at the Committee on Supply, chaired by Speaker Aminu Tambuwal, was raised by N135.4b to N4.493trn from the N4,357,960,000,000 proposed by the Executive in November 2014.
Niger Delta Development Commission’s allocation was raised from N45.780b to N46.720b; Universal Basic Education’s allocation went up from N67.3b to N68.380b; National Assembly’s allocation was raised from N115b to N120b; Public Complaint Commission’s allocation climbed up from N2b to N4b and National Human Right Commission’s allocation was raised from N1.2b to N1.516b.
The breakdown of the final amount passed showed that N375.616b is for statutory transfer while the N953.620b for debt service was N894,610,009,000 for domestic debt and N59,010,009,009 for foreign debt.
Under recurrent (non-debt) expenditure, Education got the highest allocation of N392,363,784,654, followed by Defence/MOD/Army/Air Force/Navy with N338,697,219,431. Police formation and Commands got N303,822,224,611 and N237,075,742,847 is for Health sector.
In the budget, N69,423,427,479 was allocated to Youth Development; N62,226, 771,999 for office of the National Security Adviser; N58,247,429,975 (Petroleum Resources); N48, 389,942,264 (Secretary to the Government of the Federation); N41,649,382,166 (Foreign Affairs) and N31,869,020,717 (Agriculture and Rural Development).
Science and Technology got N25,593,880,816; Works (N25,173,916,543); Information (N23,682,420,241); Presidency (N20,085,865,120); Tourism, Culture and National Orientation (N18,018,478,935); Environment (N15,599,334,341); Trade and Investment (N10,941,859,480) and while Communication Technology (N10,592,048,381).
From the N13,965,664,092 approved for the eight Federal Executive bodies, N5,293,800,054 is for the National Population Commission; N1,935,767,344 is for the Code of Conduct Bureau; N493,656,088 (Code of Conduct Tribunal); N2,207,213,456 (Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission); N1,125,005,114 (Federal Civil Service Commission); N740,477,185 (Police Service Commission) and N2,167,931,068 (Federal Character Commission).
Also, N354,335,011,023 was approved for Service Wide Votes with N20.170b allocated to Operation Zaman Lafiya; N22b is for operations – Internal for the Armed Forces; N9.6b is for payment to Nigerian Army Quick Response Group, including arrears; N5b is for payment of outsourced services; N2.3b is for entitlements of former Presidents/Heads of State and Vice Presidents/Chiefs of General Staff; N5.5b is for Employees Compensation Act – Employees Compensation Fund; N17.5b is for General Elections logistics support; N17,397,993,277 is for Contingency; N6b is for country’s contribution to West African Examinations Council (WAEC); N4.5b is for assessed contribution to African Union and others; N6,099,600,000 is for margin for increases in costs; N9.5b is for external financial obligations; N3,099,600,000 is for recurrent adjustment; N38,987,017,746 is for public service wage adjustment for MDAs (including arrears of promotion and salary increases) while N11.755b is for improved remuneration package for Nigerian police.
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