Juliana Taiwo
17 November 2008
Abuja — President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua has blamed the delay in the presentation of the 2009 Budget to the National Assembly on the global economic crunch which affected the oil price benchmark on which the appropriation was initially predicated.
Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity Olusegun Adeniyi confirmed to State House Correspondents that the 2009 budget proposal would be presented to a joint session of the National Assembly this week, but said the actual date would however be agreed upon between the President and the leadership of the assembly
The budget, he hinted, would focus on security, construction and rehabilitation of more than a thousand kilometres of roads, construction and rehabilitation of bridges as well as food security and water resources.
Adeniyi further explained that President Yar'Adua decided to refocus the efforts of the Ministry of Finance to align with his thinking in his determination to ensure that government got its acts together and the budgeting process conformed to the developmental needs of the country.
The global economic crunch and crude oil prices which have been tumbling down for some time now have taken their toll on budget preparation.
The 2009 budget was initially predicated on $62.5 oil price benchmark. It has now been brought down to $45, but some governors are said to be canvassing a higher oil benchmark of $50, though the oil price has continued to fall below $56 a barrel.
Adeniyi said: "The budget has taken a long time to prepare not only because of the global economic crunch that affected the oil price benchmark but also because the President has had to refocus the efforts of the Ministry of Finance several times to align with his thinking.
"Painstaking effort went into the preparation of the 2009 budget and Mr. President had to change some aspects of our budgeting process which he said had not advanced our quest for development in any way."
Adeniyi said those criticising the administration for being too slow in service delivery had not taken into cognizance the fact that some of the greatest problems that had afflicted governance in the country were a product of lack of planning and utter disregard for due process, procedures and rule of law which President Yar'Adua had recognised.
He reiterated that, "Mr. President is determined to stop the swiftness of action with regards to decision making without planning which over the years has produced nothing but gross wastages of scarce national resources.
"Budget henceforth will not be about how much is being spent but what is being delivered to the people and I have no doubt in my mind that at the end of his tenure, when Nigerians put this President on a scale, he would come out good. That ultimately is what counts."
Adeniyi said security, which is a prominent feature in the 7-point agenda of President Yar'Adua would be seriously addressed. "There would be massive investment in security with special focus on Abuja and five other major cities across the nation based primarily on need rather than on federal character. Four of the cities are in the South, while one is in the North.
"One sad aspect of our budgeting process that the President frowns upon and which he intends to change is the politicisation of projects. For the President, every project must be defended on the basis of national priority and need rather than on political exigencies." he said.
The presidential spokesman also hinted that there was a clear shift in the budgeting process such that the emphasis on next year's budget was no longer on how much to spend but on the actual deliverables.
"For instance, next year, the mandate of Works and Housing Ministry will be to complete the construction and rehabilitation of more than a thousand kilometres of roads as well as the engineering and design of about another thousand kilometres. Many bridges also fall under this category of construction and rehabilitation.
"What the President has done is to have a complete inventory of all the federal roads. There are 30,000 kilometres of federal roads nationwide and the President has prioritised them under different categories with timelines," he further stated.
On food security, he said the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Water Resources would next year significantly increase land under cultivation through irrigation with expectations of increased yield of about 200 per cent with the same target for fish production, adding that whatever was happening elsewhere in the world with regards to food crisis would not affect the country and its people.
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