• FG to seek judicial interpretation of budget appropriationThe Director-General of the Budget Office of the Federation, Ben Akabueze, yesterday, hinted that the Federal Government would “at some point” approach the Supreme Court for a judicial interpretation of appropriation as it relates to budgeting.
Akabueze admitted that Nigeria’s federal budget, at 4.6 per cent of the gross domestic product , was “too low in terms of number and the socio-economic challenges”. He confessed the government was helpless as the revenue to GDP was among the lowest in Africa. He blamed the country’s poor revenue on the poor “structure of the economy”. For instance, he said, the country’s agriculture, which is a key driver of the GDP, was not a major revenue earner owing to the subsistence nature of the sector. He pegged the entire government ’s revenue to GDP at eight per cent, which is extremely low, and that this must necessarily be improved to reduce the country’s reliance on debts and increase public spending.
Akabueze also argued that the sort of budget consultation Nigeria demanded was not practicable in the case of the federal budget and insisted that the Medium Term Expenditure/Fiscal Stability paper rolling plan is often open for public hearing and inputs. According to the Senior Special Assistant to the President on National Assembly Matters , Umar el-Yakub, members of the two arms were not elected to fight one another.
“When you do a budget and you implement it, especially looking at the capital component of the budget, you will find out that the numerous infrastructural projects around the country are some of which have been realised because they have been put to use, like the rail and road infrastructure and hospitals.