2018 budget on wrong foundation – Senator

Chairman, Senate Committee on Tertiary Institutions and TETFUND, Senator Jibrin Barau, has said that the 2018 budget being debated was built on wrong foundations.
The Senator representing Kano North Senatorial district, said since the budget is predicated on a wrong foundation it would hardly achieve the expectation of its projectors and worse still address the needs of anxious Nigerian masses.
Barau, whose position was predicated on the fact that Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) upon which annual budget hinges, was still in the offing in the Senate, adduced the argument while contributing to debates on the N8.612 trillion national budget yesterday.
He also posited that it was wrong from the legal point of view. “MTEF is still with Senate and what basis did the executive prepare it’s 2018 appropriation. This is legally wrong anywhere.”
Barua faulted abysmal allocation of funds to the tune of 7 percent to education contrary to the United Nations standard of 24 percent of the total budget.
He allayed fears that education sector would be hit with strikes in 2018, adding that only N4 billion was spent in 2017 against N3 trillion allocated to education sector. “In 2017, government spent a paltry N4 billion instead of N3 trillion budgetted for capital budget”, he said.
On the contrary, Senator Nelson Effiong representing Akwa Ibom South Senatorial district commended the Federal Government over the implementation of 2017 budget, saying that the nation had just passed through recession.
According to him, government has done well to exit the nation out of recession, adding that it was appropriate that the 2018 budget was tagged that of consolidation.

 

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