* Only N3.921trillion spent on capital projects

* Civil/Public servants wages gulp N8.307trillion

Nigeria has made over N30 trillion in federally generated revenue since the country’s return to democracy 10 years ago with the Federal Government retaining N10.881 trillion of this amount, according to figures obtained by Sunday Vanguard.

Federal Government’s expenditure outlay during the period is N12.548 trillion of which only N3.921 trillion is for capital projects while the balance of N8.307 trillion is for recurrent.
In clear terms, much of the public funds accruing to the centre during the last ten years has been spent not for the general welfare of Nigerians but to pay the salaries and allowances of civil and public servants.

The situation reveals an interlocking set of vicious circles that perpetuates economic stagnation and rural poverty.
One of such circles is the savings - investment gap in the rural parts of the country.
Another is the problem of shortage of dedicated government administrators.

The result is often incompetence, worsened by endemic bribery, corruption and favouritism. Besides the ineffective system of taxation over the years has failed to mobilize financial resources for capital formation. Bad as this situation is, it is worsened by investment allocation. Nigeria in the bid to foster unity in diversity set up and allocated investment in ways that hardly promote economic growth. Appointments to offices are not based on merit and performance but on ethnic arithmetic while public enterprises operated at a loss, draining off scarce capital rather than creating it.

Government, realising that it cannot do well in business, has made attempt to privatise enterprises that have been a source of economic rent to bureaucrats If Nigeria’s economy is to achieve a self sustaining growth, its workforce must develop the motivation and discipline essential to industrial production. Nigerian farmers must become commercial farmers open to technological innovation in agriculture as against the subsistence farming and the use of old implements that is of today

A large percentage of the capital votes all these years was not spent but held by the various Ministries, Department and Agencies of government. The lid on how this practice was dragging the nation backward was blown open when President Umaru Yar’Adua came on board and demanded that all unspent allocations be returned to the federal treasury.
Government recovered N360 billion of such unspent allocation to ministries, Department and Agencies. Unspent funds from last year’s budgetary allocations to Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) totalling N360 billion have been recovered by the Federal Government.

The MDAs, according to the Chief Economic Adviser to the President, Dr. Tanimu Yakubu, returned N 300 billion from their capital vote allocations and another N60 billion from their recurrent expenditures for last 2007.
The issue of unspent funds has become thorny under the present government, with two ministers losing their positions recently for failing to comply with the government policy.

National treasury

Dr. Yakubu Tanimu, the Chief Economic Adviser to the President told journalists that the Federal Government was expecting an additional N40 billion to be returned by the MDAs. This pushed the total returned funds to the national treasury to N 400 billion by the time the directive was fully complied with.

“When the present administration came on board, we discovered that government doesn’t have enough resources to implement what the president promised during his campaign. So, the president directed the recall of MDAs’ capital votes and we recovered over N300 billion. About N60 billion was also returned from their recurrent expenditure.

“So it was obvious that the MDAs were just executing projects without any feasibility study. Hence, it was clear that what needed to be done was to clean the Federal Government’s balance sheet,” he said.

Commenting on the power sector that has generated a lot of controversy, he explained that given the amount of funds already spent, additional 16,000 megawatts ought to have been generated but the reverse was the case because of the way it was executed. He said it was because of this development that Yar’Adua insisted that he would no longer pump money into the sector until he was sure that additional power would be generated.

In Nigeria, productivity is low because investment is low and investment is low because savings is low. In turn, savings is low because income is low; income is low because productivity is low.

The situation remains largely the same as savings has not improved beyond what it was in the 1980s if not worse off. Going by World Bank reckoning, while Korea achieved about 94 per cent level of secondary school and tertiary enrolment, Nigeria, during the same period (1965-1986) achieved 29 per cent.

The implication is that while these countries have reached a self sustaining growth, Nigeria has been trapped in poverty, deficit budgeting N315 billion in 2002, N202 billion, N172.6 billion in 2004, N161 billion in 2005 and N117 billion in 2007and population explosion of 140 million 2008. The effect is that the living standard of the populace is on onward decline and this has dragged more Nigerians into the poverty line. In fact, a recent study shows that more than 70 per cent of Nigerians live below one dollar a day. The situation has not changed much. These are the realities starring the populace in the face as Nigeria celebrates10 years of Democracy

In the financial management of Nigeria resources, two issues stand out, one that of unspent budget and resources generated by Agencies of government that are not well accounted for. According to those close to Aso Rock, the President “in keeping with his total commitment to upholding the principles of openness, transparency and full accountability in the management of public funds, has not approved the operation of any special account or the withholding of details of such accounts from the National Assembly and the public.

Indeed, the president directed the minister of finance to make an immediate and full disclosure to the National Assembly of all accounts kept and operated by the Federal Government.” The President his aides said has expressed his willingness to cooperate with the National Assembly for “speedy provision” of all required facts and figures. The Senate has resolved that, henceforth, funds appropriated but could not be expended within the years of appropriation must not be carried over or warehoused. It also urged President Yar’Adua to effect the establishment of the Fiscal Responsibility Commission as provided for by the enabling Act.

For instance as it is the case with most budget the implementation of the 2004 budget fell below target as most ministries and parastatals did not show determination and willingness to execute capital projects for which money was made available by the federal government.

Only 43 per cent of the money released by the federal government to ministries and parastatal for budget execution was utilised in the first half of 2004. This being the first year of the implementation of Nigeria’s poverty reduction strategy NEEDS, except concrete steps are taken, implementation will once again stifle life out of the programme.

Figures released by the federal ministry of Finance showed that in the first six month of the year, out of the N174.788billion budgeted for capital project in 2004, N199.585billion was released to the various ministries and parastatal in which only N86.420billion was actually utilised by these ministries for capital project implementation. This show that only 43.3 per cent of the capital project was implemented by the federal government. It was the same story for the 2007 and 2008 budget where provisions for capital projects were not implemented.

Yet in Nigeria services such as power supply, transportation, storage, communication etc that are indispensable to modern industry and agriculture are grossly inadequate and not available on regular basis. What is more, power supply is erratic, transportation chaotic but budget allocation to these sector are never fully implemented.
The phantom power probe that has stalled Integrated Power Project is an example. Yet, the problems are not being adequately tackled by subsequent government. Inadequate transportation and communication block the exploitation of rural resources in Nigeria. As a result poverty has taken over the land.

http://www.vanguardngr.com/1/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=36887&Itemid=41

why do people go about orchestrating another person's opinion as if they dont have their own?

My question is who are these busy bodies and idle monetry analyzers outlining all this junks as Nigerias achievment whtsoever?!?
GOSH.

point of correction op Nigerian politicians make N30 trillion in 10yearz of democracy cuz i cnt seen d work of diz money in Nigeria