The 2014 budget and national priorities!

Eze Onyekpere
| credits: File copy

The national budget is an essential planning and fiscal instrument that shows a nation’s priorities and its scale of preference in solving its myriad of challenges. But the determination of priorities for the most part is not a matter of law. With the exception of statutory expenses which must be spent by the dictates of the constitution or an enabling statute, priorities are political preferences. In making these choices and preferences, the values and worldviews of the framers of the budget come to the fore. Budget preferences also raise questions of the extent of participation of citizens in determining the priorities. It also raises questions on the accountability of the leadership to the led in terms of using the budget to fulfill the promises made in fundamental national development policies such as the Fundamental Objectives and Directive Principles of State Policy; Vision 20:2020 and its implementation plans; the Millennium Development Goals and ratified international standards such as the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.

In the determination of priorities, we construct a scale of preference, a felicific calculus based on certain utilitarian principles that enable us to move society towards a desired direction. This is where the question of leadership comes to play. For the federal budget, the President as the leader of the executive and the first among all equal Nigerians needs to lead by example, to sacrifice, to show love, empathy and fellow feeling for his fellow countrymen and women. This sacrifice is also demanded of the legislature and the judiciary and all who find themselves in a position of authority. But what we find in these shores is a misunderstanding of leadership which dictates that Nigerians should do what they say and not what the leadership does.

In the 2014 budget proposal before the National Assembly, the State House demands N907.115m for maintenance of office buildings/residential quarters. In the 2012 and 2013 approved budgets, it got a vote of N1.562bn and N510.936m for the same purpose. The question arising is: What exactly is this vote for and how do you define maintenance that is done in perpetuity?  Should this yearly demand for maintenance cost so much to the treasury? Thereafter, there is a request for repairs/rehabilitation of residential buildings and office buildings for N205m and N1.65bn respectively. Can someone who is sufficiently learned in the use of English Language tell me the difference between maintenance and rehabilitation of the same buildings? It appears to this discourse to be a play on words and nothing more than a ploy to get more resources out of the treasury for the same purpose.  There is a proposed upgrade of unnamed Villa Facilities at N1.5bn which last year got approval in the sum of N2.5bn. The Presidency needs N2.378bn for travels and transport. Canteen/Kitchen equipment will cost N131.750m after the 2012 approved budget had made provisions for the kitchen equipment. Another demand is for computer software acquisition for N105.67m in 2014 which had a vote of N95.89m in 2013. Do we buy and change computer software every year? For undefined welfare packages, there is a demand for the sum of N267.775m. The same welfare package got N256.623m and N355.896m in 2012 and 2013 respectively.

As usual, the National Assembly gets a vote of N150bn without a breakdown of what exactly the money is for. All other agencies enjoying statutory transfers also get their votes without a breakdown known to the public. For the National Assembly, its vote has been as constant as the northern star in the last three years. The yearly N150bn is not affected by any shift in macroeconomic fundamentals; it is its right and nothing can change it. Let us not make a mistake about these expenditure heads. No one is saying that official houses and buildings should not be renovated and repaired or that the State House occupants should not be taken care of. No one is saying that the legislature should not be funded. This discourse posits that they can be funded at a far cheaper rate than what these proposals recommend. This will be possible if and only if the leaders have a heart that accommodates the people. It is understandable in the Nigerian scenario that this is virtually an election year when the timetable released by the Independent National Electoral Commission is taken into consideration and politicians will want to maximise their take from the public till. But Nigerians deserve improved public services and greater value for money.

As usual, the Federal Ministry of Works has hundreds of projects especially roads and bridges included in the budget. Virtually, all the roads have been designed to be constructed for a specific number of years with a fixed cost and design. The implication is that a road that would cost N10bn to be constructed over a four-year period is expected to attract an average of N2.5bn every year. But in the usual tradition, the budget awards a pittance that cannot get the projects off the block. We end up with a situation where the resources are spread so thin; no project gets completed and no value is derived from project investments that are not available for public use.  We repeat the same process, using the same methods and expect different results. Will the heavens fall if the executive and legislature decide to concentrate on three key roads per geopolitical zone and complete them before embarking on new ones? For so many years, there have been discussions about public private partnerships in terms of concessions; Build, Operate and Manage, and Build, Operate and Transfer, etc. Which federal road in Nigeria has been operated and managed under any of these fancy acronyms? Is it not time these ideas left the shelves and the bookstands and be positioned for actual use to improve our degenerate infrastructure?

For Nigerians, we should not continue to sit idly by the fence and look. This is the time to take our pen, phone, work our email and the social media; write to our representative in the Senate and House of Representatives, call them on phone and send messages to them about what we like or dislike about the budget currently before them.  Ask them to cut down on frivolous expenditure and vote for money for our priorities. Ask them to reduce recurrent expenditure (not the salaries of civil servants) but the perks of office of political office holders. Let us talk about it on radio and television, hold street rallies and demand that our leaders treat us as humans created by God. Ask the legislators to increase the capital vote – not the administrative capital vote for new cars, computers and software in their offices but the capital vote that will touch the lives of people in roads, schools, hospitals, transport, etc. Finally, Nigerians should tell the leaders of the APC not to dream of carrying out their threat of frustrating the budget approval process until the Rivers State crisis is resolved. No one or group has the right to hold other Nigerians to ransom while being paid and maintained at the public expense.