Don't Blow Budget 2008

Written by Osita Okechukwu

Friday, 12 September 2008

Conference of Nigeria Political Parties (CNPP), carefully analysed the bid to squander the 2008 Budget, by the Federal Executive Council. We can hardly connect the relationship between the urgency of Nigerians yearning for rapid reconstruction of our decayed infrastructure, the insurgency in the Niger Delta, emergency on power sector and the issue of restructuring, which unnecessarily delays the implementation of the 2008 Budget. For before President Yaradua reconstitutes his cabinet to suit the new ministries, the unspent monies will be recalled and possibly end up in private pockets.      We hard earlier alerted the nation that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) central government,  had never implemented 50% of capital budget since 1999 and no account was ever rendered. This is outrageous and impedes infrastructural development. We begin to ask how the 7-Point-Agenda will be actualised if projects are neither funded nor implemented? With  less than four months to go in the 2008 fiscal year, the 2008 Budget   is still in the kitchen of the National Assembly, waiting for the 2009 Budget; while no major capital project is being implemented in the Niger Delta, Power Sector , nor on going projects inherited being funded. The danger is that as the Speaker of the House, Hon Dimeji Bankole pointed out, “the Budget Revenue might disappear into the private pockets.” Whereas we acknowledge the hype over the setting up of Niger Delta Ministry; however it is our considered view that only speedy implementation of the abandoned Niger Delta master plan can halt the insurgency in the region. Our fear is that the Niger Delta ministry like the NDDC may become another conduit pipe for the enrichment of PDP goons at the expense of the development of the region. CNPP in league with most Nigerians is concerned that with 15 months in power, President Umaru Yaradua is yet either to find his feet or implement any of his 7-point Agenda. Consequently, CNPP needs to remind President Yaradua of the remarkable statement of former Saudi Arabia, Oil Minister, Sheikh Zaki Yamani: “the stone age did not end because we ran out of stones.” Our Golden Oil Age will not end because we will run out of oil, but will end because of the urgency devoted to invent alternative sources of energy.

 

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