Budget: North rejects Southsouth’s vote

Posted by admin Budget, House, Latest Politics, Legislature, South-South Tuesday, February 28th, 2012

Hon.Tambuwal

Reps plan to summon Okonjo-Iweala

IT was meant to fast track development, rebuild infrastructure and create jobs. But this year’s budget has, even before it takes off, become a document of acrimony.

The Northern Caucus of the House of Representatives is protesting against the capital allocation to the Southsouth as against the share of the three zones in the North.

The lawmakers are threatening to frustrate the budget’s passage, if the “imbalance” is not addressed.

Besides, some members of the caucus are insisting on the invitation of the Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, to explain why the Southsouth has 29.65 per cent of capital votes for the six zones.

House Speaker Aminu Tambuwal may meet with President Goodluck Jonathan on how to redress the “lapses” in the capital budget, it was learnt yesterday.

The caucus has submitted a 252-page “Regional Analysis of Capital Allocation in 2012 Draft Budget” to the Speaker and leaders of the North in and outside the government.

Copies of the document have been sent to the Presidency and the Minister of Finance.

A principal officer of the House from the North, who pleaded not to be named because of the “sensitivity” of the matter, said: “Members of the Northern Caucus are not happy over the huge gap between the capital allocation of the Southsouth and other zones in the country.

“We commissioned the analysis so that Nigerians will not think that we are wielding ethnic cards. Budget is about development; it should not be lopsided. While N116.5billion capital vote is given to the South-South, other regions have between N40.8b and N65.5b.

“Yet the capital vote is outside derivation principle, the N69b virement for some special projects in the South-South, the NDDC budget and other contingencies.

“We are definitely asking questions on why none of the three zones in the North gets as much as 50 per cent of what is allocated to the Southsouth.”

Another source added: “We are poised for budget battle with the President and Okonjo-Iweala, unless they rework the 2012 Appropriation Bill to reflect equity and justice.

“We have made our position known to our leaders and the Speaker who has prevailed on us to allow him time to discuss issues with the President.”

A copy of the 252-page document, which was obtained yesterday by our correspondent, reads in part: “The budget with a theme: “Fiscal consolidation, inclusive growth and job creation” is provided at N4.75 trillion. Of this amount, N1.3trillion is proposed as capital expenditure. The focus of this analysis is on the capital allocation component of the budget

“The report is aimed at bringing to limelight some salient gaps that need to be closed in the final budget in order to mitigate the devastating effect that such observed imbalances might have on the socio-economic development of the affected region(s).

“The entire capital allocation in the budget is painstakingly analysed herein to the six geo-political zones of the federation in order to depict what falls to each of the regions. In the process of doing so, it was realised that substantial parts of the allocation were either proposed to be executed centrally at the mother ministries or jointly combined for two or more zones. The two scenarios are treated for the purpose of this analysis as nationwide and partial nationwide respectively.

“From the foregoing analysis, it could be pictured that a large chunk of the allocation is handled centrally at the headquarters of the various ministries.

“The provisions traceable to the zones as a percentage of the gross allocation indicate that Southsouth takes the highest with 8.83% while Southeast, comprising five states only, takes the lowest with 3.73%

“Upon the exclusion of the centrally allocated amounts, the Southsouth takes 29.65% while the South-East takes 12.52%. Others are Northcentral (16.27%); Northeast (10.40%); Northwest (14.50%) and Southwest (16.67%).

“If the President’s proposals were enacted in its present state based on our analysis, the fiscal consolidation, inclusive growth and job creation as clearly spelt out in the theme of the budget might not be equitably distributed across the regions of the Federation.

“It is our prayer that the imbalance in the proposed capital allocation in the various zones should be objectively reviewed and harmonised in the interest of federal character, equity and fairness among the geo-political zones instead of a particular zone taking the largest percentage.”

-Nationwp_posts