In Pictures: 2012 budget: Mark, PDP, Senators, Reps, others react

Posted by admin Budget, House, Legislature, Party Politics, Peoples' Democratic Party (PDP), Senate Tuesday, December 13th, 2011

*The budget must challenge us— Mark

*It’s budget of transformation— PDP

By Henry Umoru, Clara Nwachukwu& Emman Ovuakporie

ABUJA- SENATE President David Mark yesterday warned that as a nation, we must all be challenged by the 2012 budget proposals if the desired results must be achieved, just as he described the implementation of past budgets as mere words as economic policies often lack continuity.

He also said yesterday that “Nigeria as a country has what it takes to be a great nation or a world power, but we have failed to achieve this because as a nation, we have refused to challenge ourselves sufficiently over the years to attain desired goals”.

Speaking yesterday at the joint session of the National Assembly on the presentation of the 2012 Budget proposals by President Goodluck Jonathan, Senate President Mark accused the presidency of needlessly discarding or abandoning projects as a result of lack of implementation of budgets.

Said he: ‘’We are delighted to have you with us this afternoon as you perform one of your constitutional responsibilities. Over the years, we have listened to very beautiful and impressive budget speeches eloquently delivered in this chamber. Unfortunately, the implementation has not matched the words as economic policies often lack continuity and projects are needlessly discarded or abandoned.

We have what it takes to be a great nation or a world power. But we have never challenged ourselves sufficiently over the years to attain this desired goal. It is our hope and sincere belief that this budget will challenge us; and to take the challenge we must tighten our belts. To do so we must ensure that all sectors and every Nigerian irrespective of position or status is involved.

‘’Let me remind us that in 2011 the Legislature led the way in reducing our overhead and recurrent expenditure in order to increase investment in capital expenditure and to lead by example.

resident Jonathan during the budget presentation to the joint session of the National Assembly.

‘’We must lay emphasis on critical infrastructure, reduce revenue leakages, grow the economy, generate employment, encourage local production and promote made-in Nigeria goods. We on our part will ensure the comprehensive implementation of the 2012 budget to the letter through our oversight functions.

‘’Let this budget be the one that will say “let there be light, and there is light; let there be roads and there are roads; let there be water, and there is water; let there be employment and there is employment; let there be medicare and it is so; and let there be food and there is food.”

Meanwhile, President Goodluck Jonathan has forwarded to the Senate, draft bills for an act to make development Planning compulsory for all tiers of government in Nigeria and to create coherent and measurable targets in developmental initiatives in support of the attainment of the goals of vision 20:2020 and for other related matters.

The other draft sent to the Senate is the bill for an act to repeal the Nigerian Council for Management Development Act, CAP. N99, laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004 and to enact the Nigerian Council for Management Development Act, 20112 and for other related Matters.

Budget of Transformation — PDP

ABUJA-THE Peoples Democratic Party, PDP yesterday described the 2012 budget as presented to the National Assembly by President Goodluck Jonathan as that of transformation, just as it promised to work with the Executive to ensure its full implementation.

Speaking with Vanguard yesterday at the National Assembly Complex, Acting National Secretary of PDP, Dr. Musa Babayo said, ‘’it is budget of transformation. The PDP government which is being led by President Goodluck Jonathan is a government that has promised the transformation of Nigeria. Transformation in every aspect of our national life.

‘’If there is anything that is capable of helping the government to actualize the vision, that Mr. president has for Nigeria, it is the 2012 budget which has just been presented to the National Assembly. So I believe by the time the process of implementation begin, Nigerians will see what we have never witnessed in the country.

‘’Agriculture because agriculture has been the main stay of our economy right from independence till date, until the discovery of oil, when agriculture was pushed to the background. What Mr. President has done today is to assure Nigerians and to demonstrate once and for all his resolve to bring back agriculture as the main stay of Nigerian economy.

‘’The PDP will work with the executive to ensure that this time around we achieve near total budget implementation especially the capital budget which has always been the area where we have problems. We try as much as possible to engage the leadership both in the National Assembly and the government because when the capital budget is implemented fully, it will turn around the economy of this country.

In his reaction, Chairman, Senate Committee on Petroleum(Downstream), Senator Magnus Ngei Abe, PDP, River South East noted that the budget would help stimulate the economy if well implemented. Said he: ‘’I think the budget drive growth and stimulate other sectors of the economy. All we need to do in this country is to try to stimulate growth in terms of the economy and make Nigeria more productive. All these are things we should be looking at in this budget”.

Also reacting, Senator Abdullahi Sankara Danladi, PDP, Jigawa North West said, ‘’whatever may be the case, I think there is an increase between 2011 and 2012 so Nigerians should not worry, because they have good representation so I don’t think Nigerians should worry, they should be calm and continue to pray.”

In his reaction, Chairman, Senate Committee on Appropriation, Senator Mohammed Maccido, PDP, Sokoto, said, ‘’Personally, I am not impressed with the implementation of the 2011 budget and the National Assembly is not impressed too. The Minister of Finance has said it was 80 per cent performance but that was not true. Even if it was implemented up to 50 per cent, it was in recurrent and not the capital budget.

‘’On fuel subsidy removal, the President is still making consultations and we are not sure if it was included in the 2012 budget, but we learnt from a reliable source that he was still making consultations on that. Also, on the percentage of capital and recurrent expenditure, that too, is quite contentious and I will appreciate the position of the executive on that issue because we have had an argument among us in the past that there was no need for us t reduce the recurrent budget but there were agitations from various quarters about salary and that was what informed the increase.

‘’Generally, the budget is progressive considering that a barrel of oil is pegged at 70 dollars per barrel while exchange rate is N155 to a dollar. Also, the agitations of the Niger Delta have been addressed. Someone addressed the budget as progressive and I will agree with him.”

In his comments, Senator Olusola Adeyeye, ACN, Osun Central, said, ‘’Nigeria is not in short supply of great speeches, what it is in short supply of is the tenacious implementation. Year after year, we have these beautiful speeches, year after year we have horrible implementation however we will comment more when we see the details of this one and the level of implementation. ‘’That about N19trillion that is needed, this is what is available and you find out that the money available is far less than what they are dreaming of and you ask yourself, where are we going to get the difference. That is where proper governance comes into play. What kind of finance engineering is the President willing to bring to bear so that we can have the revenues needed to do that, which the President is proposing?”

Also speaking on the budget, Chairman, Senate Committee on Public Accounts, Senator Ahmed Lawan, ANPP, Yobe North said, ‘’this is a period that we are much more challenged than ever before. This country has witnessed so much security challenges than we never had before and it is because we have not implemented the budget of the previous years. We have not provided Nigerians what is rightfully required to make things work for Nigerians and Nigeria

‘’So, I believe that we need to pray hard and for us in the National Assembly, the Standing committees must work hard to task the executive to make sure it implements the budget 2012.”

Also in his reaction, the Chairman, Senate Committee on States and Local Government, Senator Kabiru Gaya, ANPP, Kano South said, ‘’the Capital budget is 28 per cent and the recurrent is 72 per cent. There is an improvement on last year’s budget, but certainly, Nigerians should have a better way of getting dividends of democracy. Let us say, the reverse would have been the case, 70 per cent on capital budget so that Nigerians can benefit more and 20 or 30 per cent on recurrent. We hope to see that one day.

Commenting on the budget, Chairman, Senate Committee on Aviation, Senator Hope Uzodinma, PDP, Imo West, said, ‘’the speech is good, we have received the document; we are going to look at the document and work in tandem with what would be acceptable to the people.”

Also commenting, Chairman, Senate Committee on Environment and Ecology, Senator Bukola Saraki, PDP, Kwara Central said, ‘’in the 2012 budget Mr. President has stated categorically that we will first of all deal with abandoned projects before we dabble into new projects, we hope that whatever that is in the budget today we keep to it, we in the seventh Senate I am sure we will make sure that all that is said is done, we will make sure that we work on this budget so that Nigeria can move forward.

On his comment on Subsidy, Saraki said, ‘’he did not mention anything about subsidy, I cannot comment on it.”

Also reacting, Chairman, Senate Committee on Rules and Business, Senator Ita Solomon Enang, PDP, Akwa Ibom who described the budget as the most practical, said, ‘’this is the most practical budget we have had in the last three years. Because the budget here is talking about the removal of waivers improving agriculture, giving a lot of incentives to the manufacturing sector. Part of what I will suggest to put in the waivers is that anybody that is bringing in a modular refinery, we should have complete full scale waiver for him so that we can start having small scale refineries and have a higher earning capacity for our products so that we can reduce import on petroleum .

For Senator Olugbenga Obadara, ACN, Ogun Central, ‘’it is the usual thing for the budget to come to the National Assembly. Today Mr. President Presentation on 2012 budget is just a proposal, we are going to look at it and analyse it whether the parameter is wrong or right. The implementation of the budget this time must be 100 percent, we will look at the budget holistically whether the figure is over bloated, we will take our time after we have analyzed it, we will look at it properly whether the budget is for the masses in the country.

For Mr. President not to remove fuel subsidy in 2012 budget means that Mr. President is treading the path of honour, I think there is nothing to be hurried about on subsidy removal.

Commenting, Chairman, Senate Committee on INEC, Senator Andy Uba, PDP, Anambra South said, ‘’we will work on the budget and I am sure that everybody has started working on the budget, in our own committee we have started working on it so that we can get it done as soon as possible.”

For Senator Sefiu Adegboyega Kaka, ACN, Ogun East, ‘’931billion for security is something that is worrisome looking at the allocation for Agriculture about N59billion, with all the beautiful plans, we are not having adequate financial backing for that sector and that is the sector that will generate employment opportunity for our youths, it is the sector that will give us the security.

We should earmark money for development of rural areas and create job opportunities for Nigerian youths. Agriculture is well captured in the budget, but is not backed financially, then we have a problem, implementation will become difficult those who are going to implement it will eventually be frustrated. If the budget is not implemented, the multiplier effect we are expecting from that sector will not be realized.

In his reaction on the budget, Minority Leader in the House of Representatives, Mr Femi Gbajabiamila said “the president must have tactically avoided mentioning the issue of oil subsidy withdrawal but where ever it is we will fish it out from the document”.

President Jonathan (left) arriving the National Assembly yesterday.

Chairman House Committee on Finance Abdulmumin Jibrin explained that the budget was well articulated and commended the President’s commitment especially in the areas of fiscal discipline, job creation, proper management of the country’s debt portfolio among others.
“From the speech of Mr President you could see a lot of determination and commitment that this time around the country is not going to have a haphazard implementation of the budget, so we (the parliament) will take him for his words.

Dakuku Peterside, Chairman, House Committee on Petroleum warned that the president can only achieve his objectives if the usual problem of implementation is tackled head-on. “The general framework of 2012 budget is brilliant. But it needs more details. Priorities, especially with regard to education, agriculture, power, infrastructure, security and so on, are also right. In fact, I also feel that Mr. President’s policy direction is hope generating’, he said.

On the issue of recurrent which continues to gulp a substantial portion of the budget every year, Peterside called for a radical departure from the norm. According to him, ‘74 per cent for recurrent is still high despite the fact that it is a reduction from the previous year and domestic debt is equally worrisome’.

The lawmaker who represents Andoni-Opobo/Nkoro federal constituency also described 23 per cent earmarked for capital project as paltry and insufficient to do the work. But he is confident of a better 2012 once the proper things are done.

Rep Seriake Dickson in his reaction said, “the president touched on everything in his budget proposals, “from power to Agriculture, the president did justice to all and let me point out this, it is the first time we have a well articulated budget proposal since I have been in the House of Representatives

Rep Victor Ogene representing Ogbaru Federal Constituency in Anambra state and Deputy Chairman House Committee on Media and Public Affairs hailed certain areas of the budget proposal such as the waivers given to part of the Agricultural sector and duty waiver for the importation of equipment in the power sector.

He however condemned the late arrival of the budget saying that “today is 13th of December and we are just seeing the budget. A bill was sponsored three months ago by Hon Femi Gbajabiamila that the budget proposal should be presented at least three months before December for adequate deliberation before the close of the year, this will go a long way in making us have proper implementation of our budgets if the bill sails through.”

2.48 crude oil production estimates unrealistic — Operators
Oil industry operators have described President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan’s 2012 Budget estimates as highly ambitious and very unrealistic, as oil accounts for more than 80 percent of the national revenues.

They argued that the budget size of N4.75trillion on production estimates of 2.48 billion barrels per day, is not in tune with current realities, in view of the fragile peace in the nation’s oil-rich Niger Delta, the threats of another round of global recession if the Euro Zone collapsed, OPEC quota restrictions as well as the international oil market, which has witnessed increase in output.

The Chief Executive Officer, International Energy Services, IES, Dr. Diran Fawibe, told Vanguard in a telephone interview, given the above scenarios, estimates not exceeding 2.3million bdp would have been more like.

He said, “2.48 is very ambitious and optimistic because it did not consider the fortunes of the industrialized countries, particularly the Euro Zone, that is under the risk of possible collapse, and this might trigger even a worse round of global recession much more than the 2008 levels, and where is the market that will absorb all the production?.

“Within these scenarios, oil production will be affected. And assuming we have the capacity to produce that much, based on the assumption that the relative peace in the Niger Delta will remain/ but we can’t be certain of that because there are still intermittent attacks, Shell recently declared a force majeure on some of its crude production.

Fawibe, a former President of the Society of Petroleum Engineers, SPE, further noted, “If the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, OPEC, at its meeting tomorrow (today) decides to enforce individual countries’ quota, and there is a cutback, then there will be a problem. Don’t forget Libya’s oil is back into the market as well as crude from other non-OPEC countries, and this may affect supply and cause glut if another round of recession sets in.”

-Vanguardwp_posts

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Posted by admin on Dec 13 2011. Filed under Budget, House, Legislature, Party Politics, Peoples' Democratic Party (PDP), Senate. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry