Nigeria’s budget without oil realisable – Fayemi


The Minister of Solid Minerals and a former Governor of Ekiti State, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, has said the N6.08tn 2016 budget proposed by President Muhammadu Buhari is realisable.

The minister also said the budget was not bogus despite the dwindling revenues from crude oil.

The Ekiti State Governor, Ayodele Fayose, while criticising the budget, had said that, “It is only in a confused and clueless economy that government will plan to spend more when revenue has reduced by more than 50 per cent.”

But speaking in Isan Ekiti on Sunday during a thanksgiving ceremony marking his ministerial appointment, Fayemi said there was no amount budgeted to develop a vast country like Nigeria that was too much.

He lamented the neglect of the solid minerals sector since independence, saying the sector had the capacity to turn around the country’s economy, considering its local consumption by industries and export benefits.

He argued that the Ministry of Power, Works and Housing that received a staggering sum of N433bn largest share in the 2016 budget could still not boast that the amount would be more than enough to turn around the infrastructural facilities across the nation.

He said, “The former governor of Lagos State who superintends over the Ministry of Power, Works and Housing with about N433bn budgetary provision cannot say the amount is enough to turn around the facilities of this country if you look at what was involved.

“The Lagos-Ibadan expressway alone will gulp a sum of N250bn while the remaining amount may go with the second Niger bridge, so no minister can say the amount budgeted is more than enough.”

Fayemi assured Nigerians that the budget was targeted at improving their lives, promising that it would be pursued with passion to realise its goals.

“The budget presented by President Buhari has a focus and the focus is to improve on the well-being of Nigerians and to improve on the infrastructural facilities across the nation.

“So, what we need now is to prove our mettle by being innovative and be creative. We need to work very hard to actualise the focus of this budget and this will only be measured by the level of impact we are able to make on the Nigerian masses.”

Fayemi maintained that Nigeria’s self-sufficiency in cement production was enough to prove that the country was richly blessed.

cc:lalasticlala
http://www.punchng.com/nigerias-budget-without-oil-realisable-fayemi/

I hope it won't be inconclusive budget at d end of the day. can nigeria survive without oil revenue?

“The Lagos-Ibadan expressway alone will gulp a sum of N250bn while the remaining amount may go with the second Niger bridge, so no minister can say the amount budgeted is more than enough.” Hmmmmm What abt power and housing..confused.

Solowande:
I hope it won't be inconclusive budget at d end of the day. can nigeria survive without oil revenue?

YES. Apart from Natural resources, Nigeria has under-utilized the abundant Human Resources. if what Nigeria earn from revenue is not aimlessly looted, there will be enough to run the government.

Even if buhari recovers all the looted fund,there is no meaningful thing tht will show tht he will do with it coz it will go same way abacha loot went.
Do u know y ?,,,coz Nigeria has expired as a single entity & the country cannot go beyond the level it is now & the country is at its elastic limit, if u like fund nigeria with the whole money in the world it will still not change coz the ppl mindset is no longer together but rather everyone is after his/her selfish interest.
Finally,let buhari return the money tht was used to fund his election back to lagos & rivers state .

I can bet my life Fayemi will say completely different thing if PDP is the government in power now. How does the government intend to realize the revenue to finance the budget when crude oil price is on the down slide? The global fall in oil price will reduce the income of major oil companies in Nigeria and also affect the amount of taxes they will pay to the government and since crude oil sales is our major foreign earning , it means increase in exchange rate which will also reduces our importation and that will greatly accept the revenue government receive from custom. All basic economics theory point contrary to what the government want us to believe but hopefully they know what the people like me do not know. If this government can pull this through then i will call it ECONOBUHARISM- economics theory that state you spend more when you earn less and spend less when you earn more.

The Ekiti State Governor, Ayodele Fayose, while criticising the budget, had said that, “It is only in a confused and clueless economy that government will plan to spend more when revenue has reduced by more than 50 per cent.” see cluelessness mumu man they talk.even when the american economy was in recession. Obama needed to spend to firstly stop the downward trend and secondly to start growing the economy. that's simple economics. anyway what do you expect from such person . abey allow people wey go real school talk jooo.

What most Nigerians failed to realise is that Nigeria can get more than that amount if all linkages are blocked successfully and most of the revenue generating institutions are well monitored. As a rebuttal to Fayose's comment, low revenue generation in oil doesn't mean we can't have higher budget. In fact, it gives us more opportunities to diversify our economy if properly planned. If our tax system is well developed, if the solid mineral sector is greatly developed, if the Costume Service is checked and our Sea Ports greatly managed, more than enough revenue will be generated.