President Muhammadu Buhari; Vice President Yemi Osinbajo; advisers and ministers still operate in the belief that good intentions and reputations are all you need to run a new government successfully. Buhari, especially, must still be thinking that his former reputation as a tough guy will cow all those who had cooperated with previous governments in wrecking the nation’s economy. Little did the old general realise that with three military Heads of State succeeding him and a recycled former military ruler returning as civilian President, Nigerians are now as scared of the men in khaki as before. He is just now beginning to realise as late President Harry Truman, 1884-1972, remarked when General Dwight Eisenhower, 1890-1969, was elected President in 1952, “You give an order as President and nothing happens”; nothing, unless you virtually sit on the necks of the officials who are supposed to get the work done and the way you want it done.

Buhari, imbued with the innocence associated with having served as a military Head of State, gave orders that a budget be prepared, in one month in November 2015. And sure enough, there was a budget before the National Assembly, NASS, proceeded on its Christmas break in December.

The Federal Government congratulated itself on a feat almost equivalent to using mere words to move mountains. But, by the second week in January 2016, there was a mild drama about a missing budget. This was followed by arguments about two budgets and doubts about which was the authentic one. The President was forced to write a letter apologising to the NASS for the confusion created by the Executive branch. For a while, everything appeared settled.

The first week of February brought more problems for Buhari and the budget he solemnly presented to the NASS. Various committees of the NASS discovered discrepancies in the budget presented to them for verification and alarm bells were ringing all over the nation.

Buhari-Central AfricaThen, on February 8, 2016, the Federal Minister of Health, Professor Isaac Adewole, went before the Senate Committee on Health and made history. He almost totally disclaimed his Ministry’s budget when he declared that the original budget of his Ministry had been distorted. His words: “We have to look into the details of the budget and re-submit it to the committee. This was not what we submitted. We will submit another one.” With that statement, Adewole confirmed the alarm raised a few days before that a mafia had taken control of the Federal budget and distorted it.The Buhari administration is finally waking up to the reality that long entrenched interests in the civil service and collaborators among long serving NASS members are not about to allow the changes the government desires to occur so quickly because it threatens their selfish interests.

One example will illustrate the point.

When late Chief Bola Ige assumed office as the Federal Minister of Power and Steel in 1999, he promised to bring an end to power failure by December of that year. Long term watchers of the Federal Civil Service establishment warned the Minister not to repeat the statement or risk tarnishing his reputation as a performer. Ige was adamant – power failure must end by December 31, 1999. On January 1, 2000, as several Nigerian communities were covered in darkness, Nigerians started grumbling. They did not stop until Ige was removed from the Ministry. What went wrong? Ige himself provided the answer – the Civil Servants working with him. His redeployment to Ministry of Justice was a relief. But, he had learned his lessons. The first thing his enemies within did to undermine him was to distort his budget proposal. But given our new experience with civilian rule, the NASS, in 1999, rubber-stamped everything presented as budget. Later, Ige discovered that what was approved by the NASS was totally different from what he sent for typing. It could not be implemented.

Fast forward to 2015 and how a new mafia took over from the gang of 1999. The first discovery is that President Buhari provided the mafia with the best opportunity in years to operate on account of two decisions he made, before and after he was declared winner of the 2015 presidential elections.

Every modern President is called upon to manage two primary areas of governance very well – the economy and security of the state. Other functions, though important, are totally dependent on how well the first two are managed. Some, like former President Clinton of the United States, even start early to consider how to handle those two key aspects of governance. The very day Clinton decided to run for President, he posted on the door of his campaign office a notice about his top priority stating JOBS STUPID! For him, the economy was going to be number one. He then proceeded to assemble a team of economic advisers who eventually developed a road map for his economic policy if he eventually got elected; and he was. Among his first three appointments were the Secretary of State and the Treasury Secretary (Minister of Finance). This was followed by the establishment of an economic policy team to address the first budget Clinton was going to present to Congress. It took almost five months of back breaking work for that document to emerge – after going through about four drafts.

No mafia can smuggle anything into that budget because all the framers had all the relevant facts in the budget at their finger-tips.

In case anybody wants to dismiss the Clinton example, by saying, as we often do in Nigeria, that “that is America”, there is a local example to consider.

President-elect Obasanjo, in 1999, before his inauguration made two appointments first. He appointed a Chief of Staff and Chief Philip Asiodu as the Chief Economic Adviser. Then, he appointed a National Security Adviser. That immediately sent a clear message to the world that his priorities were the economy and security; and each sector had a Field Commander.

Umar Musa YarÁdua and Jonathan also appointed, very quickly, the people who would manage the economy on their behalf. That is the global standard. Even the President of war-torn Syria had managed to keep the economy of the country relatively untouched because he knows that economic chaos is another war by itself; and perhaps the biggest one.

By contrast, Buhari was declared President on May 29, 2015, and on that day he had no Economic Road Map to work with.

Most of the twaddle that was pronounced during the short campaign by the APC cannot constitute an economic blue print in any serious country. Certainly, there was no Council of Economic Advisers assembled to start preliminary work on the outlines of the first budget of this government immediately the results were announced and Jonathan accepted defeat.

Buhari compounded that error by taking almost five months to assemble his cabinet. Even for a country under siege, five months is a world record, and not one should be proud to claim, to form a cabinet.

Encouraged by the flatterers of everyone in power, Buhari proclaimed that he was doing it to avoid making mistakes.

Meanwhile, he was making a monumental one. National budgets are very serious businesses; they affect the lives of nationals and foreigners alike. If no serious multi-national business enterprise can expect to produce a credible budget in one month, how on earth could Buhari and his praise-singers have expected to deliver a national budget, with foreign operations components, in one month?

Clearly, if the blame for the current budget fiasco is to be laid on one table, it must be Buhari’s. Given his reputation for integrity, amply demonstrated by his first apology to the NASS, he should issue another apology to Nigerians. He gave those charged with writing the budget an impossible task and the nation is now faced with a budget crisis. Even, the intrusion of the saboteurs was made possible and easy because given the rushed work, the new Ministers were no match for the long-term civil servants ready to undermine the budget process. A normal budget process, allowing for first, second and third drafts,would have been more difficult to infiltrate because by then every Minister or head of agency would have gone through the documents more than once.

Even now, there is no Chief Economic Adviser; no Council of Economic Advisers; no Minister is solely responsible for implementation of the budget. The Vice-President had intervened several times but his role is not clear. Incidentally, it was the Vice-President who announced five months ago that the government was considering an N8trillion budget for 2016. That figure represented about 85% more than the 2015 budget and 110% over the projected actual figure for last year. The figure was alarming; yet, a call to the Presidency confirmed that indeed the government was thinking of N7-8 trillion according to the source. Given the rapidly declining price of crude, most economists and budget experts regarded the figure as totally unrealistic. Still, the figure was defended strongly at every fora. The figure for the 2016 budget turned out to be N6 trillion. The same VP announced that the 2016 budget would be based on the Zero Sum platform. He ignored warnings that budgets using zero sum model take months to prepare; not one month. Today, ignorance about the application of zero sum budgeting is being advanced as one of the causes of the mess in which we find ourselves. Who is responsible? This government has yet to learn that its VP is not an economist, but, he can do a lot of damage with his utterances on the economy.

Yes, the mafia is striking back; and it has drawn its first blood by getting the Federal Government into this horrible budget embarrassment. But, government has provided the rope with which it is now hanging because of errors made in the presidency.

Clearly, two steps need to be taken urgently. Unlike those asking for the budget to be withdrawn, the best advice would caution something different. First, make amendments as necessary to the budget because there is no time to write a new one. Then, urgently assemble an Economic Management Team with a leader to take charge of the situation before government’s credibility is further damaged. Neither Buhari nor Osinbajo is an economist. The sooner they realise that the better for us all.

http://www.vanguardngr.com/2016/02/abuja-mafia-and-budget-2016-how-buharis-inaction-aided-a-crooked-process/

our president is suffering from amnesia!!!!. Secondly is the only saint in Nigeria , so the another means to siphon our money without public notice is by manipulating the budget , then the e- supporters can continue shouting sai baba!!!!!!. All our past and present leaders are looters even buhari is not even close to the messiah to save the country.




Self acclaimed saint surrounded by daylight thieves, then what will you tell police that you are saint in the midst of thieves? Infact you are a thief.

Buhari has no knowledge about running an economy, all he knows is kworoption, worst part is that he has surrounded himself with thieves

Karlovich:
Buhari has no knowledge about running an economy, all he knows is kworoption, worst part is that he has surrounded himself with thieves

nobody is an epitome of knowledge and that's why wise leaders surround themselves with experts in various fields to handle set tasks. You can see from examples given in the article how Clinton, Obj, GEJ etc assembled sound minds immediately they got into power just to steer this ship properly. I had warned severally during the first few months of this administration that the lethargy shown towards the appointment of a cabinet would come back to haunt us but APC minions came attacking me like rabid dogs. No matter what they say online here, the situation is biting everybody now irrespective of party affiliations. Security wise, I had expected a few heads to roll when at inception of this govt, military road blocks were banned for some days, time enough for anybody to get into formation ave strike when word is given instead there were shameful denials that no such order was made. I witnessed the dismounting of the road blocks so nobody can lie to me. Question is how will a government leadership with military background be so clueless on directives/orders ? I have an ugly feeling but don't want to say it because of its implications

Wow, well said

He collected campaign money from these crooks, now is d time to make back their money through our budget.



#BudgetOfCorruption

The recent trend of events in Nigeria and the international embarrassment on the APC 'Budget of Fraud' confirmed my below assertion.


[size=18pt]
APC, Party of professional fraudsters and career rogues. [/size]

Pls let's try and get things going will need that budget to passed, signed and implemented, Nigerian's need it.

Buhari is as corrupt as his Budget Mafia's

After this long sermon , the writer's conclusion is to do nothing.
This is what the governments should.

1 Suspend the budget especially the capital element and overheads
2 in the meantime resend only items regarding BVN verifiable recurrent expenditure( salaries) to the NA for approval.
3 Remove anything regarding training(Point of corruption)
4 Embark on skills/qualification verification to see if those federally workers have the pre-requisite skill. If not , retrench. They should not have been employed in the first instance.Match skills to relevant ministries



Where things get interesting
The capital element and cutting waste

1 Spend the entire capital expenditure on items which add value most especially revenues

2 Hand over unviable airports to states and commercialise /privatise the viable ones.

3 direct all FG owned agencies to close down the multiple offices/ departments in a state and move all their operations to federal liaison offices in the respective states. The armed forces ( police, customs , inland revenue , can be excluded

4 grant autonomy to the universities and make them source for their revenues with minimal grant from the federal government.

5 Terminate all long railway journeys outside city limits . Handover the rail within city limits to the states for mass transit . Instead of 2 long distant journeys a day by rail,
The states can run multiple journey within city limits because of the short turnaround duration.

6 suspend all recruitment into the civil . The problem has never been quantity, but quality.You can efficiently run the entire ministry of works with 80 engineers( civil , mechanical , electrical , project managers ,10 secretaries ,3 lawyers , 5 accountant,5 admin assistant.

7 NDDC and ministry of Niger delta . Can also be run by less than 100 people. collapse this 2 into 1 . Retrench and move most expenditure into capital expenditure , create an amnesty office with the ministry . Channel 90% of all capital expenditure into actual oil producing communities and villages with groundbreaking project which will directly benefit the people . Well planned housing, piers ,mini ports, where possible , roads and bridges etc .The ministry should desist from dealing with matters of state responsibility. Like building schools and hospitals where the states is not ready to fund the schools.

8 Encourage states that generate revenues for the FG .


These are a few thing that can be achieved with the budget . In facts, many of them do not even need additional money. You simply have to move items around.

BaddieKay:
Buhari is as corrupt as his Budget Mafia's

Fine girl

The truth is that APC wanted to steal, but Nigerians caught them red handed.. Simple!

SAI BUAHRI SAI BUHARI SAI BUHARI

Fools

The western world is laughing to the bank

imagine d disgrace n cluelessness of dis govt using budget to defraud nigeria.
dis man should have just stick to his real calling - cattle rearing.

Let's call a spade by its name rather than engaging in bulk passing. The entire budget shenanigan should be situated to Buhari"s incompetence and lack of basic administrative skill . No more, no less.

Assuming the budget was doctored by civil servants, are we indirectly saying the president is a Postman who delivers a package without knowing its content? Why didn't the president direct his close aides to vet and scrutinize the document line by line?

But because we have a president who lives by denial and public eulogy, anomalies of this nature will continue to trail his government. One thing remains clear, Buhari is over hyped. He only works with people but fails to work around them.

chriskosherbal:
Pls let's try and get things going will need that budget to passed, signed and implemented, Nigerian's need it.

not the way it presently is, the criminality in it is mind boggling

CyberWolf:
The truth is that APC wanted to steal, but Nigerians caught them red handed.. Simple!

.

That's absolutely true. They were trying to bring the same template used in milking Lagos, Osun, Kano and other APC States dry but thanks to eagle-eyed Nigerians who caught them red-handed. We continually say APC is a scam but some citizens would not just listen.

Budget mafia my black ass! All I see are ministers burning misdnight candles together with their permsecs delibrating and padding the budget to accomodate their interests which is why they are in politics in the first place.

Has anybody wondered why Udo Udoma is yet to say anything on the matter, He knows that if he opens his mouth on what truly transpired, heads would roll!

BTW, these civil servants that this administration so wants to be the fall guys, are they not the same people Buhari trusted and would rather work with instead of noise makers, The ministers of the different ministries are responsible for the gigantic silo of yams in the 2016 budget with the collaboration of Buhari.

Why is anyone surprised about this
A man confessed that he cannot perform so he will naturally be inactive while doing Mr. Tourism around the world



www.nairaland.com/attachments/2039366_image_jpeg9f360c5ab7736510df54c882e9dbf188

Budget Mafia, is that another name for ghost that Buhari and his anti corruption forces can't catch? Maybe somebody has suddenly becomes blind. Budget mafia is also behind 1.7 billion naira budgeted for Aso rock feeding.

BeardedMeat:
Budget mafia my black ass! All I see are ministers burning misdnight candles together with their permsecs delibrating and padding the budget to accomodate their interests which is why they are in politics in the first place.

Has anybody wondered why Udo Udoma is yet to say anything on the matter, He knows that if he opens his mouth on what truly transpired, heads would roll!

BTW, these civil servants that this administration so wants to be the fall guys, are they not the same people Buhari trusted and would rather work with instead of noise makers, The ministers of the different ministries are responsible for the gigantic silo of yams in the 2016 budget with the collaboration of Buhari.

thank you very much, I always believed that budget mafia crap was nonsense. As a leader, you're supposed to take responsibility at all times. These ministers and even the president have PA's, SA's etc who could have gone through the drafts for them as they're "so busy" and pointed out errors. Sad fact of the matter is Buhari and his cohorts were not ready for government

You can't fault this write up.

BekeeBuAgbara:
Budget Mafia, is that another name for ghost that Buhari and his anti corruption forces can't catch? Maybe somebody has suddenly becomes blind. Budget mafia is also behind 1.7 billion naira budgeted for Aso rock feeding.

No mind the zombies who will believe such fable.
I thought their messiah was sold to us as a Superman who knows all and can do all on behalf of the LAZY asses of dem zombies.



www.nairaland.com/attachments/2829596_img6325197050325_jpeg_jpeg61db8b350e65ada0da8fdf4018fb03e4

Obiagelli:
You can't fault this write up.

www.nairaland.com/attachments/3073565_ctuafvju8aakuv5_jpeg49a942de8e3d1d388856e63d96b767a5

This is not a matter of any mafia, we've been hearing one new excuse for each and every week of this administration. There were specific people tasked with drafting this budget, Buhari should invite/arrest those people for "undermining" the integrity of his government. The only reason he'll refuse to do so is except he's complicit in the padding process or.











He's very very afraid of those that did/authorized the padding i.e."real ogas of aso rock"

talktimi:
thank you very much, I always believed that budget mafia crap was nonsense. As a leader, you're supposed to take responsibility at all times. These ministers and even the president have PA's, SA's etc who could have gone through the drafts for them as they're "so busy" and pointed out errors. Sad fact of the matter is Buhari and his cohorts were not ready for government

Buhari was not ready for governance! The man should have been made efcc chairman ahead of Ribadu. Jonathan decided to punish the poor guy by conceding defeat to him in the face of glaring contestible irregularities.

BeardedMeat:
Buhari was not ready for governance! The man should have been made efcc chairman ahead of Ribadu. Jonathan decided to punish the poor guy by conceding defeat to him in the face of glaring contestible irregularities.

so it is punishment now I hear ya. If Baba can't stand the heat, he should leave the kitchen

talktimi:
so it is punishment now I hear ya. If Baba can't stand the heat, he should leave the kitchen

....for where! Na only six feet go separate baba and aso rock. Siddon tight African mentality!

Good piece