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Implementation of capital budget: The game is
on again
When members of the National Assembly
emphatically distanced themselves from the people they presumably represent by
permitting President Obasanjo to present his regime’s so-called Budget
proposal for Fiscal Year 2005, while the nationwide strike was on, some of us thought that they would
confront the ruler with a balance sheet of lapses, showing clearly how his
performance has fallen short of what could bring succour to the citizenry. To
our surprise - did we really have to be surprised, given the antecedents of the Abuja Legislature? - it all turned out to be business as
usual in the typical legislative fashion we have had since 1999. Lawmakers did
not have the courage to drill Mr President on the implementation of Budget
2004.
What we learnt a few days later from some newspaper
reports was that National Assembly members belonging to the ruling Peoples
Democratic Party (PDP) had actually openly disagreed with President Obasanjo
when he claimed at a meeting with the party caucus that the Government had
recorded 65 per cent implementation of Budget 2004. A couple of them had told
the President to the face that implementation so far was below 40 per cent and
that they expected him to buck up. But I doubt very much if he cared a hoot
about their observations. It was vintage Obasanjo, the one to whom facts have
no sacredness, the one who cares so very little for accuracy of information,
the one for whom truth has no significance.
On
Thursday, October 21, it emerged in the course of deliberation on the 2005 Budget proposal in the
Senate that only N71 billion of the N351 billion for capital expenditure in
last year’s Budget has been released by The Presidency. That represents
20 per cent implementation of the capital budget for this year. Yet we are
already in the last quarter of the year! The excuse is that the Due Process
mechanism is being meticulously observed to eliminate fraud. But Nigerians
cannot be fooled. People can now understand why Obasanjo and Dr Okwesileze Oby
have been loquacious all the time about tens of billions saved through due
process.
What is
so glaring is that Obasanjo and his Ministers are in the course of diverting
budgetary allocations as they have been doing since 1999 - a fact that
caused the former Defence Minister, General Theophilus Danjuma, to resign from
the cabinet. They are using Due Process as a ploy to cover up their sinister
agenda.This time around, the National Assembly must rise up to the defence of
the national good and tell Obasanjo and the looters surrounding him that enough
is enough. They should never underestimate what could result from the
recklessness with which Obasanjo has mismanaged the resources of this country.
Mass poverty in the land today has reached unbearable limits - over 80 million
Nigerians are living on less than $1 a day - and Government must be very very
careful.
Oyela
ta Fubara
Otakeme-Ogbia
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