By Obadiah Mailafia


FORMER British Prime Minister David Cameron
infamously described ours as “a fantastically
corrupt country”. This is what you get when
England is ruled by immature Eton boys. But we
have to concede that when it comes to budgeting,
our parliament has often let us down.

One of the most influential works in social science
in the seventies and eighties was the book by
Naomi Caiden and Aaron Wildavsky, Planning and
Budgeting in Poor Countries (Wiley & Sons 1974).

Their message was that rational planning and
budgeting in low-income countries is technically
impossible due to unrelenting popular demands
and pressures, in a global business environment
of commodity price volatility and unpredictable
public finances. They argued therefore that long-
term planning should be jettisoned in favour of
what they termed “continuous budgeting”.

In the context of the Cold War, developing
countries swallowed their message hook, line
and sinker. Through the structural adjustment
programmes that we were coerced into
implementing by the Bretton Woods institutions,
we in Nigeria threw away the baby with the
bathwater. Few know that economic planning in
Nigeria was quite successful. Anyone in doubt
should read the works of the doyen of Nigerian
economics Pius Okigbo.

Paradoxically, the countries that bought the new
heresy sank deeper and deeper into the mire
while those who ignored them — South Korea,
Singapore and Malaysia — prospered. The
eminent American economist Wolfgang Stolper
was one of the architects of our first National
Development Plan 1962-1968. Stolper, who kept
a meticulous diary, noted that our country had far
better prospects than Singapore, Malaysia and
India. He was apparently incredibly impressed by
first-generation public servants such as Simeon
Adebo, Ali Akilu, Pius Okigbo and Ojetunji
Aboyade (“what Aboyade did not know in
industrial economics was not worth knowing”).

Like many Nigerian intellectuals of my generation,
I became irritable whenever foreigners criticised
us or tried to force their ill-thought economic
nostrums down our throat. I now believe that your
enemy can be your greatest helper. Your duty is
to listen politely. Whenever the IMF visitation
were in Beijing, I’m told the mandarins would
entertain them lavishly. And whenever it was time
for them to peddle their heresies the Chinese
would feign perplexity. They have had statehood
for more than two millenniums and they know
that the best way to defeat an enemy is without
firing a single shot – by mind and soul-force.

Obafemi Awolowo termed it “mental magnitude”.
Today, China has overtaken America in GDP,
although it’s in everybody’s interest to pretend
that this is not the case. Wise leaders would do
well to imbibe the royal counsels of ancient
Africa: “Talk softly and carry a big stick”.
We should go back to the traditions of rigorous
economic planning, taking on board the lessons of
world economics and the imperatives of global
national competitiveness. Planning will help us to
better allocate resources on a more rational,
long-term basis while imposing discipline on the
budgetary process, fostering nation building and
mass mobilisation. The youths of this country,
with their incredible energy and creativity, are a
nuclear force waiting to be unleashed for national
transformation.

Although we celebrated the recent finalisation of
the 2017 Appropriation Bill, it is regrettable that
we could only manage to do so in mid-June.
From November last year when the estimates
were submitted to parliament to May this year,
the entire process was overtaken by unseemly
drama akin to a seedy downmarket Nollywood
film. Year-in-year out, we are faced with the
same intrigues and loud howls about ‘budget
padding’. Over breakfast last week, I engaged in
a lively conversation with my old friend Bright
Okogu, former Director-General of the Budget
and currently Executive Director at the African
Development Bank. He painted a rather sorry
picture of the greed and grand larceny that
underpins the appropriation process.

The National Assembly is expected to be the
spring and fountain of our democracy. I fear that
they have exhausted their moral capital in the
eyes of the Nigerian people. When the executive
submitted a proposal of N7.3 trillion, they upped it
to N7.4 trillion. In assenting to the final figures,
Acting President Yemi Osinbajo was astonished
that several line items were smuggled into the
final document. He has promised that they will be
revisited.

Some would have noted the little matter of the
kerfuffle between the National Assembly and the
executive, where the former reaffirmed their
constitutional right to maim the budget anyhow
they like, quoting Section 81 and other relevant
chapters of the 1999 constitution. That kind of
spat is, in itself, a recipe for confusion. It
certainly will not promote good public financial
administration. These problems will continue to
dog our budgeting system unless prudence and
wisdom are made to prevail.

We need to understand that there is the letter of
the law on the one hand, and the spirit of the law,
on the other. Where they don’t agree, or
application of the literal rule may have perverse
effects, most civilised nations would be inclined to
err on the side of the spirit of the laws.

There is also the imperative of good form. Most
civilised democracies follow the general principle
that the executive does the estimates and
executes the budget while the legislature focuses
on appropriation and oversight. Although
parliament has powers to decrease the budget, it
would be considered rather odd in most
democracies for them to increase the quantum.
To ensure balance, parliaments in the mature
democracies give the Chairmanship of the
Appropriation Committee to the opposition. It is
also considered rather bad form for legislators to
determine their own budget and emoluments in
the blatantly self-interested game-theoretic
manner that obtains in Nigeria. Not to mention the
judicial point that it is patently criminal to engage
in budget padding for the purpose of appropriating
funds that will go into private pockets or to
contractors to whom they have undeclared
business interests.

Going forward, we may need the Supreme Court
to undertake judicial review of the entire
budgetary process in order to demarcate clear
lines of responsibility between the executive and
parliament to ensure administrative order and
timely appropriation for the common good,
welfare and happiness of all Nigerians.

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