For those familiar with the Federal Budget, you’d agree Nigeria’s yearly budget in the last three years has not been more than N5trillion. The Federal Budget which is the official document detailing how much the government is expected to generate in revenue and spend is a closely watched document, debated for months until approved by the National Assembly.
So what if everything they have been telling you are all lies and that the amount the government spends per annum is not N4.3 trillion or under N5trillion as we all know?.
The Chairman of the committee, Mr. Adeola Solomon-Olamilekan, made a alarming statement when he alleged that the Federal Government actually spent up to N20tr annually. According to an article in the Punch, he explained that, unknown to Nigerians, the N4.3tn, for example, did not include the expenditure of many “statutory and extra-ministerial departments” of government.
He added that his committee found out that these other agencies not captured in the regular budget, generated and spent their money as it pleased them without seeking the approval of the National Assembly.
The lawmaker put the budget of these other bodies at over N16tn. Solomon-Olamilekan explained further,
The N4.9tn, N4.6tn or N4.3tn, as the case may be, is the budget that the whole Nigerians are listening to but in the true sense of it, the budget of other statutory and extra-ministerial departments put together is about N16tn.
“So, the total overall budget year in year out is over N20tn, which the executive arm operates, but nobody is asking questions as to the implementation of all these budgets.
“Nobody is bringing information on the implementation of all these budgets; and this is one area Nigerians need to start asking questions in order to move this country forward.”
Solomon-Olamilekan stated that though the Fiscal Responsibility Act, 2007, made adequate provisions on how these bodies should be held accountable, the law was observed in breach.
This is a very serious allegation and a blatant violation of the law if proven to be true. However, the figure of N20tr looks quite outlandish considering the size. That is about $100billiin using today’s rate and about 20% of our GDP. It seems unrealistic that the Federal Government will earn that much in a year let alone spend that much annually.