The Permanent Secretary in the State
House, Mr. Jalal Arabi was a pitiable
sight at the National Assembly on
Tuesday while struggling to defend the
extreme self-indulgence embedded in
the 2016 budget for the State House.
How can a government of change
rationalise N3.8 billion proposed
expenditure on the State House
Medical Centre, about N1.1 billion on the
purchase of vehicles, N3.91 billion
on rehabilitation/repair of office
buildings and N89.17 million on
restaurant/kitchen equipment for the State
House at a time of austerity?
It is very sad to note that the
federal
government is proposing to spend
more on capital projects at the State
House Medical Centre this year than
for all the 16 teaching hospitals
across the nation. Arabi also
struggled to defend a scandalous N369.33
million for “Other Capital projects”
in the State House. The SGF’s office
was also assigned N181.28 million
for “computer software acquisition.” Only
God knows what the SGF’s office will
be doing with N400.19 million for the
purchase of vehicles in an era of
economic recession. It is either the
proposals for the maintenance of the
Presidency were not properly
scrutinised by those who should or
it was done to swindle the nation.
The ludicrous State House budget
proposals aside, the entire 2016 budget is
already a cataclysmic document, with
the National Assembly saying that the
proposed February passage date was
no longer feasible because of the
“errors, ambiguities and rampant
cases of padding” in it. Even the N6.08
trillion indicated as the total
figure did not tally with the actual figure
after auditing. The figures just
didn’t add up. No wonder the lawmakers
said they would require more time to
clear the budget proposal of all its
ambiguities, errors and false
figures smuggled into it, so that in the end,
“a budget that is acceptable to all
can proceed from the National Assembly”.
Again, for the first time in the
history of this country, ministers who
came to defend their budgets were
disowning figures read out by the
lawmakers from the document
submitted by the government. The first shock
came from the Minister of Health,
Prof. Isaac Adewole, who declared to the
Senate Committee on Health that the
ministry’s budget read by the committee
was not the one drafted by him.
According to Adewole, the provisions of the
budget before the National Assembly
was in contrast with the priorities of
the health sector as contained in
the original budget it prepared, adding
that some of the votes earmarked by
the ministry for some activities had
been re-distributed, while some
important fields had been excluded.
Adewole declared: “In the revised
budget as re-submitted, N15.7bn for
capital allocation had been moved to
other areas. Some allocations made are
not in keeping with our priorities.
There is nothing allocated to public
health and family health. Over the
last two years, nothing has been done on
HIV. We have to look into the
details of the budget and re-submit it to the
committee. This was not what we
submitted. We’ll submit another one. We
don’t want anything foreign to creep
into that budget. What we submitted is
not there. We have not reached that
stage and we find the money there.”
Even the Minister of Information and
Culture, Lai Mohammed openly disowned
the N398 million voted for the
purchase of computers for the News Agency of
Nigeria (NAN) and the Film and Video
Censors Board (NFVCB). Speaking at a
budget defence session before the
Senate Committee on Information, Mohammed
noted that the N398 million was
strange to him. “No, that is not possible.
That was definitely not what was
proposed. This cannot be,” the minister
protested even as an official of the
ministry noted that only N5 million
was proposed for the item in the
original budget of the NFVCB.
To cap it all, our Finance Minister,
Kemi Adeosun was involved in a verbal
war with the Comptroller-General of
the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Col.
Hameed Ibrahim Ali (Rtd) during the
budget defence in the Senate. Ali, who
is obviously still suffering from
military mentality, told her off, saying
that he reports only to the
president. So, is the Customs now an agency in
the Presidency? Buhari should clear
this mess. The Customs boss can’t be
bigger than the finance minister.
Again, Ali should sit down and think
deeply about what Adeosun told him
during the spat: “There is disconnect
between revenue and imports;
disconnect between imports and forex demand.
The Customs must sit up, you can’t
ask for salary increase for your men
when you say we are broke.” This is
food for thought.
In sane societies, those involved in
the preparation of Budget 2016 would
have resigned by now. Since they are
yet to do so, I am using this medium
to appeal to them to follow the
alleyway of honour by resigning. Clearly,
this team did a slipshod job on
budget 2016.
As for our dear President Muhammadu
Buhari on whose desk the buck stops,
this mess of a document called
budget 2016 speaks volumes about his
competence, frugality and integrity.
The Mortification of Babachir Lawal
The Secretary to the Government of
the Federation, Babachir Lawal is the
highest-ranking federal government
official to visit the traumatised
residents of Dalori Village on the
outskirts of Maiduguri. Here, 86 people
were slaughtered by Boko Haram
terrorists on January 30. Rather than
comfort the beleaguered villagers,
the SGF spent time blaming them for
“poor intelligence gathering.” He
said: “It shows a lack of intelligence
... Poor intelligence gathering by
locals is to blame for the attack.” What
Lawal is saying is that the attack
would have been averted if the hapless
locals had been up and doing with
intelligence gathering.
The SGF expects them to effectively
gather and supply intelligence to
security operatives. There is
nothing wrong with community policing.
However, it is obvious that there
was very little the poor villagers could
have done in this direction. To
blame the hapless villagers for the Boko
Haram attack due to inability to
supply intelligence is most wicked. Are
the intelligence arms of the
military, police and the DSS not on ground in
these troubled areas? What about the
men of the National Intelligence
Agency (NIA)? It is a shame if they
are not on ground. If they are, then,
they should be held responsible for
the Dalori attack and punished
accordingly. Babachir should also
note that “Dalori villagers actually got
the signal a few days before the
attack that the insurgents were likely to
attack them; they reported this to
the constituted authorities but nothing
was done to provide security for
residents and their belongings.” This is
according to Senator Baba Garbai who
represents the area. The SGF must go
back to Dalori and apologise for his
shameful statement.
Udom Emmanuel Should Cut Short His
Celebration
Now that Udom Emmanuel of Akwa Ibom
State has the nod of the Supreme Court
to continue as governor, he should
cut short his celebration and settle
down to the challenges of developing
this star-crossed state. There is no
iota of development in this hapless
state in the last 16 years. Akwa Ibom
has simply been sleeping with its
huge resources stolen by corrupt and
inept leadership. They simply stole
Akwa Ibom dry. There is too much
suffering in Akwa Ibom State, with
very few people having access to the
basic amenities of life - public
water supply, quality education,
healthcare, food, good roads and the
rest of them. The tattered public
schools across the state are an eye
sore in an oil-rich state. Udom should
visit public schools in Oyoku Asang
and Okisu communities, both in Okobo
Local Government Area of the state
to understand what I am saying. Here,
pupils sit on bare floor in
ramshackle classrooms. What a shame!
Again, Udom must allow the local
governments to function. At present, the
state’s 31 local governments exist
only on paper. The era of hijacking
funds in the joint account must
stop. The 10% from the state’s IGR that
should go to the LGs must be
implemented. I will also like to see an end to
the profligate Christmas carol that
gulps billions of Naira annually in the
state. This must not continue amidst
so much poverty in the state. It must
not continue in a state where local
government workers are being owed 8 to
10 months’ salaries. This is a state
where newly recruited civil servants
have not received a single salary in
almost one year. Going forward,
commissioners and other political
appointees that have spent almost 9 years
in government should be liquidated immediately
by Udom and fresh blood
brought into government. Udom cannot
afford to fail the distressed people
of Akwa Ibom State.
Thank You Senator Baba Garbai
While virtually everybody involved
in the war against Boko Haram has chosen
to be economical with the truth,
Senator Baba Kaka Garbai representing
Borno Central in the National
Assembly has refused to be part of the
charade. While the government has
been preaching that the terrorists have
been “technically defeated,” Garbai
recently declared openly that Borno
State was divided in equal measure
between the terror sect and the Nigerian
military. “The truth must be told
that both Boko Haram and the Nigerian
nation each have full control of
three local governments in the troubled
Borno State and both have a level of
dominance in 21 other local councils.
Mobbar, Abadam and Kala Balge LGs
are 100 per cent occupied by the
insurgents,” declared Garbai. We
must be very honest in this war against
the terrorists; otherwise, we will
be doing a great disservice to the
ill-fated people in the affected
communities. Only the truth can get us out
of this mess. The government must
stop telling us that the terrorists have
been weakened while attacks occur
virtually on a daily basis. Last week,
the terrorists attacked and
destroyed Mairi and Malari communities on the
outskirts of Maiduguri, killing
several people. On Tuesday, the IDP camp in
Dikwa was attacked by Boko Haram and
almost 70 people were killed. Just on
Thursday, four persons were killed
by the terrorists during an attack on
Shuwari Village in Konduga Local
Government Area of Borno. This nation must
put an end to this deceit on Boko
Haram war. We cannot continue like this
and expect positive result.
RingTrue with Yemi Adebowale, Email
; yemi.adebowale@thisdaylive.com. (sms
only); 07013940521
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