awodman: Does Kwankwaso have the Military,Police, SSS and other security agencies under his payroll?

Does kwankwaso pay for fuel subsidy?

How many university teachers,Polytechnic teachers and research institutes are under Kano govt payroll?

These are mere excuses. Someone could also reverse the argument and ask if Kano earns as much as the FG?

The question is: are we stuck with an unhealthy 72% in favour of recurrent expenditure? Are you defending this? Is the government helpless?

The truth is that no government (whether or not Jonathan is the one there; or whether it is PDP or APC) can develop the country with this kind of budget. There's no magic wand.

If this kind of budget continues, millions of Nigeria will continue to rightly blame the government for non-performance.

Nigerians are suffering and poverty and unemployment levels are unacceptable and scandalous.

Something has to give! What's the transformational government of Jonathan doing to change the status quo and shake up the system?

Ngene-Ukwenu:


Why has the 50% removal not tilted the Budget towards Capital Expenditure rather we are seeing the opposite?

First, only about 40% of the fuel subsidy was removed.
The implication of your post is that if that 40% was not removed, things could have been worse. For instance, in 2011, about N2trillion was spent on fuel subsidy (even though the budget only reflected N200 billion). But with reduction in fuel subsidy in 2012 and other reforms that followed the scam exposed in 2012, budget for fuel subsidy has reduced to about N900 billion from 2012 till date. Although the budget has reduced, N900 billion is still massive to spend on one commodity alone.

Kingspin: The headline is laughble. To me, it look like a personify beef. Is a party?.

Yes, PM News is the people's party

Goddex: [size=16pt]Hahahaha. . . so, suddenly Kwakwanso, Wamakko and other PDP renegades are now the toast of APC media? Back to the point anyway

1) State govt's are much smaller units with much less workforce and responsibility than FG. Apart from the huge civil service, just check out the huge military and paramilitary personnel (Army, Civil Defence, Navy, Police, Airforce, Customs, Immigration etc)

2) Not only Kwakwanso, almost all states have budget ratios tilted in favour of Capital.

3) Somebody just compared it with 2006 but forgot that a major upward review of minimum wage of close to 200% was done in 2011 and therefore the recurrent vs capital percentages cannot remain the same again

4) It will take a while to stabilise again. I remember last year after the fuel price hike, inflation rose upto 16% but now it has dropped low to a single digit of 7%

5) This govt parades some of the best Economists in the land. It's funny atimes when some mumus who know nothing about the workings of govt come here to display your ignorance

6) Besides, some of you came out here supporting a pay rise for ASUU even when we all know our Universities lecturers are already living large. You did that just to sabotage the GEJ but forgot to know that you can never eat your cake and have.[/size]

'Okwu gi kwu oto ka utu'
So on point

nationwide1: So Kwankwaso is now faultless less than 3 weeks in APC. The hypocrisy is gradually getting exposed. But come to think of it, no matter the sentiments ( religious, ethnic or political), rating economic prowess of Kwankwaso higher than Okonjo-Iweala is foolishness.

Engineers are versatile professionals that can function in any field. Kwankaso is probably as sound as NOI.

And btw they were not rating 'Economic prowess' they were reporting(which is their job) and comparing even though they do so with a quite CATCHING header.

Pukkah:

These are mere excuses. Someone could also reverse the argument and ask if Kano earns as much as the FG?

The question is: are we stuck with an unhealthy 72% in favour of recurrent expenditure? Are you defending this? Is the government helpless?

The truth is that no government (whether or not Jonathan is the one there) can develop the country with this kind of budget. There's no magic wand.

If this kind of budget continues, millions of Nigeria will continue to rightly blame the government for non-performance.

Nigerians are suffering and poverty and unemployment levels are unacceptable and scandalous.

Something has to give! What's the transformational government of Jonathan doing to change the status quo and shake up the system?

The Govt is not non-Performing. Far from it. A cursory look at d many physical projects going in many sectors (Roads, Rails, Seaports, Riverports and Jetties, Airports, Dams, etc) in d last 3 yrs shld tell u that. Plus, d FG usuali hv other sources of funding Capital budget, which are not usuali reflected in d main budget. For instance, d over #260bn SURE-P fund (about just less than #200bn of which wud go into such infrastructure as roads, rails and bridges) was not reflected in this budget. The #200bn 'ASUU' Fund deposited in d CBN and meant sorely for Capital projects in our Universities is also not reflected in this budget. The ova #150bn TETFUND, most of which is also meant for infrastructure developments in our Tetiary, was also not reflected in this budget; I am not sure but I doubt even UBEC was so included. There are other sources of course like International Funding, PPP Arrangements, Private Fundings for already privatised sectors like Power, etc..... Let me just say that d 72% Recurrent figure proposed for this yr is troubling and personali disappointing, esp as it is a very unwelcome reversal of this Govt's yearly reduction of d Recurrent from 77.1% in 2010 when it came in to 68% this yr. I wud hv loved to discuss furda but can't type more at d moment; wud just enjoy u guys disagree and hopefully agree at sm points ie Debate.....

Sincere 9gerian:
First, only about 40% of the fuel subsidy was removed.
The implication of your post is that if that 40% was not removed, things could have been worse. For instance, in 2011, about N2trillion was spent on fuel subsidy (even though the budget only reflected N200 billion). But with reduction in fuel subsidy in 2012 and other reforms that followed the scam exposed in 2012, budget for fuel subsidy has reduced to about N900 billion from 2012 till date. Although the budget has reduced, N900 billion is still massive to spend on one commodity alone.

Please lets for once agree on an obvious issue as this one. In as much as i dont blame the present govt for the budget mess, i will no shy away from highlighting the areas i feel strongly the waste has been compounded.

Areas such as:
Defence - are we in a full blown war with any country Why 1.1Trillion Naira as 2103 budget shows?
Parastatal: The number of agencies should be drastically reduced. *(weed out the redundant ones)
Presidency: This is where the waste is outrageous ( Do we need 12 private jets, etc)
Civil servants: This is another area that can take 20% OFF THE recurrent bill, if we reduce the number significantly





0

please mods move this to front page for other nigerians to see ho kwankwaso is effectively sailing kano state

Iolo: The only way to balance the National budget is to reduce recurrent expenditure. Obviously you know the Government would have to sack staff to accomplish this.

Budgets are balanced by the realities on ground.

No I disagree wt u,sack will nt solve d problem them should reduce their salary starting from president down 2 d local govt chairman

Pukkah:

These are mere excuses. Someone could also reverse the argument and ask if Kano earns as much as the FG?

The question is: are we stuck with an unhealthy 72% in favour of recurrent expenditure? Are you defending this? Is the government helpless?

The truth is that no government (whether or not Jonathan is the one there; or whether it is PDP or APC) can develop the country with this kind of budget. There's no magic wand.

If this kind of budget continues, millions of Nigeria will continue to rightly blame the government for non-performance.

Nigerians are suffering and poverty and unemployment levels are unacceptable and scandalous.

Something has to give! What's the transformational government of Jonathan doing to change the status quo and shake up the system?

Well done! You have made brilliant contributions to this topic. And I cannot agree with you less that this subject is not about parties in power both at Federal level or State level. There is definitely no way any Government (PDP or APC) can perform with just just about 28% of its budget for capital expenditure. Three things need to be urgently addressed:

1. From the income perspective, Government needs to deal with the corruption, the rot and all the leakages with our sources of income. I believe we are not getting halve of what we are truly earning.

2. The cost of running Nigeria government is far too expensive. Rather than government cutting down its cost what I see are increments here and there, or they cut it in the left and increase it on the right. We can do away with many of the government luxuries and unneeded political advisers for a start.

3. Even if the Government doesn't want to sack staff, merging many of the agencies doing exactly the same or similar jobs will still save us a lot of money.

Pukkah:

These are mere excuses. Someone could also reverse the argument and ask if Kano earns as much as the FG?

The question is: are we stuck with an unhealthy 72% in favour of recurrent expenditure? Are you defending this? Is the government helpless?

The truth is that no government (whether or not Jonathan is the one there; or whether it is PDP or APC) can develop the country with this kind of budget. There's no magic wand.

If this kind of budget continues, millions of Nigeria will continue to rightly blame the government for non-performance.

Nigerians are suffering and poverty and unemployment levels are unacceptable and scandalous.

Something has to give! What's the transformational government of Jonathan doing to change the status quo and shake up the system?

Nobody is giving excuses. Everyone, including the minister of finance wants the capital component of the federal budget to increase and even surpase the recurrent. That is the ideal. But the reality on ground is that it is very difficult to achieve this at the federal level based on the current structure of the federation and constitution.

Yes the FG takes 52% of the federation account but based on the constitutional functions of the FG, it has huge personnel to take care of and huge overhead that go with it. For instance, the security component of the federal budget alone, which constitutes about 20-25% of the entire federal budget is over 80% recurrent. Same with the sector that takes the next biggest chunk of the federal budget- education.

The states on the other hand, going by the constitution, have fewer personnel to take care of and as such fewer recurrent expenditure.

Going forward, the solution lies in re-structuring the country so that we can, as a nation, generate more revenue. We are simply not generating enough revenue at the moment. If we boost the revenue base of the country, the capital component of the budget will automatically go up. N4 or 5 trillion budget (or N10 trillion for the 3 tiers of govt) is just to small for a country of 170 million. Ghana with a population of about 20 million people has a budget of over N1 trillion. South Africa with population far lesser than ours has a budget of over N60 trillion. US with about 200 million people has a budget of over N600 trillion.

So bottomline, we need to grow our revenue. You cannot sack people with the high unemployment rate in the country. And the resource control and true federalism is the starting point of boosting the revenue base of the country. Until we do that, we have not even started.

In addition to growing our revenue base, other measures that will help include:
1. Using biometrics to weed out ghost workers. This the govt is already doing.
2. Reforms. Eg the privatisation of PHCN, privatisation of Refineries, concessioning of some federal govt facilities,etc
3. Merging of some agencies. The Orosanya committee was meant to achieve this. However, the report should be implemented, even if not fully.
4. Use of technology and systems to block as much leakages as possible

However, in the midst of too much politics and in the current politically charged atmosphere, I wonder how much the govt can really do in this direction.

taharqa: The Govt is not non-Performing. Far from it. A cursory look at d many physical projects going in many sectors (Roads, Rails, Seaports, Riverports and Jetties, Airports, Dams, etc) in d last 3 yrs shld tell u that. Plus, d FG usuali hv other sources of funding Capital budget, which are not usuali reflected in d main budget. For instance, d over #260bn SURE-P fund (about just less than #200bn of which wud go into such infrastructure as roads, rails and bridges) was not reflected in this budget. The #200bn 'ASUU' Fund deposited in d CBN and meant sorely for Capital projects in our Universities is also not reflected in this budget. The ova #150bn TETFUND, most of which is also meant for infrastructure developments in our Tetiary, was also not reflected in this budget; I am not sure but I doubt even UBEC was so included. There are other sources of course like International Funding, PPP Arrangements, Private Fundings for already privatised sectors like Power, etc..... Let me just say that d 72% Recurrent figure proposed for this yr is troubling and personali disappointing, esp as it is a very unwelcome reversal of this Govt's yearly reduction of d Recurrent from 77.1% in 2010 when it came in to 68% this yr. I wud hv loved to discuss furda but can't type more at d moment; wud just enjoy u guys disagree and hopefully agree at sm points ie Debate.....

taharqa: The Govt is not non-Performing. Far from it. A cursory look at d many physical projects going in many sectors (Roads, Rails, Seaports, Riverports and Jetties, Airports, Dams, etc) in d last 3 yrs shld tell u that. Plus, d FG usuali hv other sources of funding Capital budget, which are not usuali reflected in d main budget. For instance, d over #260bn SURE-P fund (about just less than #200bn of which wud go into such infrastructure as roads, rails and bridges) was not reflected in this budget. The #200bn 'ASUU' Fund deposited in d CBN and meant sorely for Capital projects in our Universities is also not reflected in this budget. The ova #150bn TETFUND, most of which is also meant for infrastructure developments in our Tetiary, was also not reflected in this budget; I am not sure but I doubt even UBEC was so included. There are other sources of course like International Funding, PPP Arrangements, Private Fundings for already privatised sectors like Power, etc..... Let me just say that d 72% Recurrent figure proposed for this yr is troubling and personali disappointing, esp as it is a very unwelcome reversal of this Govt's yearly reduction of d Recurrent from 77.1% in 2010 when it came in to 68% this yr. I wud hv loved to discuss furda but can't type more at d moment; wud just enjoy u guys disagree and hopefully agree at sm points ie Debate.....

taharqa: The Govt is not non-Performing. Far from it. A cursory look at d many physical projects going in many sectors (Roads, Rails, Seaports, Riverports and Jetties, Airports, Dams, etc) in d last 3 yrs shld tell u that. Plus, d FG usuali hv other sources of funding Capital budget, which are not usuali reflected in d main budget. For instance, d over #260bn SURE-P fund (about just less than #200bn of which wud go into such infrastructure as roads, rails and bridges) was not reflected in this budget. The #200bn 'ASUU' Fund deposited in d CBN and meant sorely for Capital projects in our Universities is also not reflected in this budget. The ova #150bn TETFUND, most of which is also meant for infrastructure developments in our Tetiary, was also not reflected in this budget; I am not sure but I doubt even UBEC was so included. There are other sources of course like International Funding, PPP Arrangements, Private Fundings for already privatised sectors like Power, etc..... Let me just say that d 72% Recurrent figure proposed for this yr is troubling and personali disappointing, esp as it is a very unwelcome reversal of this Govt's yearly reduction of d Recurrent from 77.1% in 2010 when it came in to 68% this yr. I wud hv loved to discuss furda but can't type more at d moment; wud just enjoy u guys disagree and hopefully agree at sm points ie Debate.....

Dear sir,
We are not taking about a partly 260 billion fund. We are talking about the budget which runs into Trillions of dollars.

Last year's amount was 5 trillion naira. Do you know how much 72% of that is? More than 3.5 triilion!

4 Play: Cutting recurrent expenditure is something everyone claims they will like to do but no one actually does. The main component of recurrent expenditure is personnel costs it seems. Every union strike, be it ASUU or medical doctors, is supported by populists. How can you be against high recurrent expenditure but in favour of public sector wage hikes which benefit the few at the expense of the many? Aso Rock food budget and the plane purchases should be scrapped but these barely make a dent.

In the US, the opposition will propose a rival budget which will give people an idea of how they intend to actualise their stance. Nothing is proposed here as an alternative other than vacuous point scoring.

Quite an intelligent post dude.

ME KNOW SAY THIS SHIT GO EVERLY MAKE FP ABI NO BE MUKI AGAIN

taharqa: The Govt is not non-Performing. Far from it. A cursory look at d many physical projects going in many sectors (Roads, Rails, Seaports, Riverports and Jetties, Airports, Dams, etc) in d last 3 yrs shld tell u that. Plus, d FG usuali hv other sources of funding Capital budget, which are not usuali reflected in d main budget. For instance, d over #260bn SURE-P fund (about just less than #200bn of which wud go into such infrastructure as roads, rails and bridges) was not reflected in this budget. The #200bn 'ASUU' Fund deposited in d CBN and meant sorely for Capital projects in our Universities is also not reflected in this budget. The ova #150bn TETFUND, most of which is also meant for infrastructure developments in our Tetiary, was also not reflected in this budget; I am not sure but I doubt even UBEC was so included. There are other sources of course like International Funding, PPP Arrangements, Private Fundings for already privatised sectors like Power, etc..... Let me just say that d 72% Recurrent figure proposed for this yr is troubling and personali disappointing, esp as it is a very unwelcome reversal of this Govt's yearly reduction of d Recurrent from 77.1% in 2010 when it came in to 68% this yr. I wud hv loved to discuss furda but can't type more at d moment; wud just enjoy u guys disagree and hopefully agree at sm points ie Debate.....

where are the projects, kano with its meager allocation was able to send more than 2000 kano indigines to varuous universities in and out. of nigeria to pursue their undergraduate studies and more than 1000 for their postgraduate studies, it was also able to build 3 mega cities with with no less than 10000 houses respectively, 3 fly - over bridges are now under construction and 3 mre coming icluding an underpass road........

Sincere 9gerian:
Nobody is giving excuses. Everyone, including the minister of finance wants the capital component of the federal budget to increase and even surpase the recurrent. That is the ideal. But the reality on ground is that it is very difficult to achieve this at the federal level based on the current structure of the federation and constitution.

We all know it is not an easy job, but someone has to do the hard job. Ignoring it is postponing the evil days. Government have to be be decisive in addressing this imbalance. Either way you look at it is not in favour of FG to ignore it. If they do something about it people will complain of the immediate hardship but will appreciate the results later, but if they ignore it and keep spending less on capital developments, people will complain both now and in the future of lack of performance. You have to accept it, there is very little development Government can achieve with the current budget.

Going forward, the solution lies in re-structuring the country so that we can, as a nation, generate more revenue. We are simply not generating enough revenue at the moment. If we boost the revenue base of the country, the capital component of the budget will automatically go up. N4 or 5 trillion budget (or N10 trillion for the 3 tiers of govt) is just to small for a country of 170 million. Ghana with a population of about 20 million people has a budget of over N1 trillion. South Africa with population far lesser than ours has a budget of over N60 trillion. US with about 200 million people has a budget of over N600 trillion.

So bottomline, we need to grow our revenue. You cannot sack people with the high unemployment rate in the country. And the resource control and true federalism is the starting point of boosting the revenue base of the country. Until we do that, we have not even started.

This I agree with, but even before looking for ways of generating more income, FG needs to deal with the corruption and leakages with our present income. How much of our earnings are being accounted for? Even those accounted for, how much of them is being remitted into the government's coffer? For example, rather than politicize Sanusi's letter and claiming what was not remitted is less than what Sunusi claimed, government should have dealt with all the officers who failed to remit the fund even it is only $1. We cant keep politicizing everything and playing lip service to things and expect a meaningful change.

That is the way they want it
Why can't we start from cutting the huge pays of the Legislators, move to fishing out Ghost workers and redundant workers in all Sectors, then ruducing corruption

Even if Capital expenditure is put at 60%, we never will see the effect as a quarter of it will only be utilized.

Many of the states in Nigeria have similar budgets.

Sincere 9gerian:

The Akwa Ibom State government has proposed N469.374 billion as budget for the 2014 fiscal year. The budget is made up a recurrent expenditure of N74.217bn representing 16% of the total budget size, capital expenditure of N303.870bn representing 65% and consolidated revenue charges of N91.296 billion representing 16 % of the budget

http://dailytrust.info/index.php/news/12218-a

However, it appears the kano state govt also classified the funds proposed to be spent on scholarship and sponsoring students abroad as part of capital expenditure. I dont know if that is correct classification.

OAM4J:
We all know it is not an easy job, but someone has to do the hard job. Ignoring it is postponing the evil days. Government have to be be decisive in addressing this imbalance. Either way you look at it is not in favour of FG to ignore it. If they do something about it people will complain of the immediate hardship but will appreciate the results later, but if they ignore it and keep spending less on capital developments, people will complain both now and in the future of lack of performance. You have to accept it, there is very little development Government can achieve with the current budget.

[size=16pt]The bolded refers, truth is, no govt makes such bold reforms in its first term. Opposition will use propaganda to bring you down eventhough noble and no President wants that. That is why a few of the reforms during OBJ were all done in his second term.

Take the issue of fuel subsidy removal last year when a crowd of Lagosians trooped out to occupy Ojota due largely to inciting propaganda from opposition. No govt will plunge itself into labour crisis and mass revolt barely a year to the next election. Have you asked yourself why Fashola did not ban Okada in his first term?[/size]

OAM4J:

Well done! You have made brilliant contributions to this topic. And I cannot agree with you less that this subject is not about parties in power both at Federal level or State level. There is definitely no way any Government (PDP or APC) can perform with just just about 28% of its budget for capital expenditure. Three things need to be urgently addressed:

1. From the income perspective, Government needs to deal with the corruption, the rot and all the leakages with our sources of income. I believe we are not getting halve of what we are truly earning.

2. The cost of running Nigeria government is far too expensive. Rather than government cutting down its cost what I see are increments here and there, or they cut it in the left and increase it on the right. We can do away with many of the government luxuries and unneeded political advisers for a start.

3. Even if the Government doesn't want to sack staff, merging many of the agencies doing exactly the same or similar jobs will still save us a lot of money.

Thanks.

And where is the person saying people have not been making suggestions? These are suggestions here o.

By the way, it's not compulsory for the people to make suggestions. The leadership of the country is voluntary and is not for the faint-hearted.

The social contract is for the government to protect lives and properties and ensure the welfare of the people.

Goddex:

Take the issue of fuel subsidy removal last year when a crowd of Lagosians trooped out to occupy Ojota due largely to inciting propaganda from opposition. No govt will plunge itself into labour crisis and mass revolt barely a year to the next election. Have you asked yourself why Fashola did not ban Okada in his first term?

More than half of the people at Ojota went there to protest not because of mere subsidy removal but because government was also insensitive in terms of its own expenditure. People were outraged to hear about the details of the budget to the extent that mechanics were quoting figures.

People were asking 'what sacrifice has this government that wants us to make sacrifice made'?

Even now, what sacrifice has the government made?

Can't the Jonathan government do anything about its own expenditure, eg jets?

Fasola restricted the working hours of okada in his first term and carried people along before restricting them from major roads. He was careful not to ban them outrightly.

The average Lagosian saw no sense in okadas playing highways and so what Fasola did was really a no brainer which people generally accepted because they were highly informed.

Who in his right senses would oppose a Jonathan government that wants to reduce the cost of governance after carrying people along and making its own sacrifice? Even the opposition would be disgraced if they try to frustrate him. But is he also ready?

And pls reduce your font size.

Goddex:

The bolded refers, truth is, no govt makes such bold reforms in its first term. Opposition will use propaganda to bring you down eventhough noble and no President wants that. That is why a few of the reforms during OBJ were all done in his second term.

Take the issue of fuel subsidy removal last year when a crowd of Lagosians trooped out to occupy Ojota due largely to inciting propaganda from opposition. No govt will plunge itself into labour crisis and mass revolt barely a year to the next election. Have you asked yourself why Fashola did not ban Okada in his first term?

This is unacceptable to me. What makes a 2nd-term a guarantee? What happens if GEJ doesn't get a 2nd-term like Obj? Why cant a meaningful leader plan and work with a mandate of 4years? IMO, even if people complain in the 1st and 2nd year because the new government policies are hard and they couldn't understand or appreciate them, I believe majority will change their mind and start appreciating the leader by the time the results start coming in the 3rd year. That is if the leader knows what he is doing anyway.

Besides, has the government exhausted other means of addressing the imbalance apart from subsidy removal?

Goddex:

The bolded refers, truth is, no govt makes such bold reforms in its first term. Opposition will use propaganda to bring you down eventhough noble and no President wants that. That is why a few of the reforms during OBJ were all done in his second term.

Are you admitting that the propaganda machine of opposition is more effective than that of the Federal Government?

You said 'a few of the reforms during OBJ were all done in his second term'. Does it mean he did most in his first term? This would contradict what you're trying to say.

By the way, privatization, monetization and banking reforms started in OBJ's first term. I think the demolition in Abuja also started then. Amosun is demolishing houses in Ogun state too and he's in his first term.

A decisive government will do what has to be done. Simple.

The majority will support Jonathan once they can SEE that his reforms are for the common good.

President Jonathan was massively popular as at the time he won the election with his party having an overwhelming majority in the National Assembly. I don't think he fully tapped into those strengths to effect major transformational changes in the system.

OAM4J:

Well done! You have made brilliant contributions to this topic. And I cannot agree with you less that this subject is not about parties in power both at Federal level or State level. There is definitely no way any Government (PDP or APC) can perform with just just about 28% of its budget for capital expenditure. Three things need to be urgently addressed:

1. From the income perspective, Government needs to deal with the corruption, the rot and all the leakages with our sources of income. I believe we are not getting halve of what we are truly earning.

2. The cost of running Nigeria government is far too expensive. Rather than government cutting down its cost what I see are increments here and there, or they cut it in the left and increase it on the right. We can do away with many of the government luxuries and unneeded political advisers for a start.

3. Even if the Government doesn't want to sack staff, merging many of the agencies doing exactly the same or similar jobs will still save us a lot of money.

Very good submission! You would observe one thing amongst the states where some form of development appears to be taking shape: they run an almost 55:45 recurrent to capital budget ratio.

I can recall vividly how in Edo State during the reign of the incompetent Lucky Igbinedion, we were constantly being told that it was impossible to have a recurrent expenditure less than 60%, however, when Oshiomhole came onboard, the recurrent was brought down from 82% to about 55%.

During Obasanjo's second term, there were policies put in place to ensure, year on year that the recurrent expenditure is reduced. These policies were to allow more private sector participation in the day to day running of government, whilst the FG would free itself from the burden of huge salary every month.

The main question one should ask is: do we really think the current crop of leadership recognise the need to increase the capital budget and less recurrent? When you have a sitting President who said having large political aides was a good thing, it would be a piped dream to expect him to reduce the recurrent expenditure sooner

Sincere 9gerian:
Nobody is giving excuses. Everyone, including the minister of finance wants the capital component of the federal budget to increase and even surpase the recurrent. That is the ideal. But the reality on ground is that it is very difficult to achieve this at the federal level based on the current structure of the federation and constitution.

Yes the FG takes 52% of the federation account but based on the constitutional functions of the FG, it has huge personnel to take care of and huge overhead that go with it. For instance, the security component of the federal budget alone, which constitutes about 20-25% of the entire federal budget is over 80% recurrent. Same with the sector that takes the next biggest chunk of the federal budget- education.

The states on the other hand, going by the constitution, have fewer personnel to take care of and as such fewer recurrent expenditure.

Going forward, the solution lies in re-structuring the country so that we can, as a nation, generate more revenue. We are simply not generating enough revenue at the moment. If we boost the revenue base of the country, the capital component of the budget will automatically go up. N4 or 5 trillion budget (or N10 trillion for the 3 tiers of govt) is just to small for a country of 170 million. Ghana with a population of about 20 million people has a budget of over N1 trillion. South Africa with population far lesser than ours has a budget of over N60 trillion. US with about 200 million people has a budget of over N600 trillion.

So bottomline, we need to grow our revenue. You cannot sack people with the high unemployment rate in the country. And the resource control and true federalism is the starting point of boosting the revenue base of the country. Until we do that, we have not even started.

In addition to growing our revenue base, other measures that will help include:
1. Using biometrics to weed out ghost workers. This the govt is already doing.
2. Reforms. Eg the privatisation of PHCN, privatisation of Refineries, concessioning of some federal govt facilities,etc
3. Merging of some agencies. The Orosanya committee was meant to achieve this. However, the report should be implemented, even if not fully.
4. Use of technology and systems to block as much leakages as possible

However, in the midst of too much politics and in the current politically charged atmosphere, I wonder how much the govt can really do in this direction.

I think that all things considered, your views here are balanced.

However, there are more things the government can do to make more money available for development.

If you move round the country, outside the offices, you will pity Nigerians. People are suffering!

The type of budget we are running cannot develop Nigeria even if you make an angel the President of Nigeria and President Jonathan must urgently do something about it IF he wants to develop the country or even start the process.

It was brilliant of him to compose the Oronsaye Committee which later produced a report of about 800 pages and stated that the cost of governance in Nigeria was among the highest in the world!

What's happening to the implementation of that report?

I admit that government is reportedly making some progress with respect to ghost workers but that's like scratching the surface. What we need is a bold overhaul of the entire system.

Sincere 9gerian: Removal of fuel subsidy alone would balance the federal budget to about 50% capital versus 50% recurrent expenditure. Ghana has already removed fuel subsidy but because of dirty, evil and tribal politics we have not done the needful in Nigeria. Shame on all those who supported the retention of fuel subsidy in Nigeria. And these are same people that shamelessly compare Nigeria with Ghana but they conveniently forget that while Ghana was taking difficult but necessary steps to move their country forward, Nigeria was busy playing dirty politics.

Are we even suppose to be subsidizing anything in the first place? isn't it insane for u to be subsidizing something u own?pls do not compare Nigeria with Ghana,cos dey do not own d oil,and how many opec countries subsidise their oil?place do ur research n tell me....

What is the rubbish about his capital project that includes match making of widows and widowers to produce almajaris. Akwaibom did 30:70 and the projects can be seen. Failed governors looking for who to blame.

taharqa: Let me just say that d 72% Recurrent figure proposed for this yr is troubling and personali disappointing, esp as it is a very unwelcome reversal of this Govt's yearly reduction of d Recurrent from 77.1% in 2010 when it came in to 68% this yr. I wud hv loved to discuss furda but can't type more at d moment; wud just enjoy u guys disagree and hopefully agree at sm points ie Debate.....

I salute you for this objectivity.

I strongly believe that the government can do more for the people of Nigeria with the same level of revenue but it must be business unusual.

nellycobs: What is the rubbish about his capital project that includes match making of widows and widowers to produce almajaris. Akwaibom did 30:70 and the projects can be seen. Failed governors looking for who to blame.

What's the proof that the capital budget includes match making of widows?

There's no government in Nigeria (LGAs, states and the FG) that can't save more money from its recurrent expenditure. The level of waste is unbelievable!

The Akwa Ibom government you mentioned is where the Governor gives people millions for Mr Biggs lunch and assembled 9,999 choristers for carol! Let's be honest, is that not an overkill?

Iolo: The only way to balance the National budget is to reduce recurrent expenditure. Obviously you know the Government would have to sack staff to accomplish this.

Budgets are balanced by the realities on ground.

Very lazy idea indeed! You do not have to sack workers as a government to reduce the recurrent expenditure. Some of the federal agencies are best functional under private sector holdings, therefore the government can down size Her direct work force by effectively privatising the non-essential MDAs, Departments, etc to reduce Her direct head count. This is the new model of governance that most countries are now adopting and have proven to be effectual so far.

The other approach is to redeploy staff so as to ensure your six figure earners are less than certain percentages say 25% of your total head count. This way, some people will take REAL pay cut, however, you also put in place indirect measures to compensate them like discretionary consumer schemes which will not be applicable to those six figure earners.