Nigeria’s Budget And The Masses, By Tajudeen A Tijjani

NEWSDAILYNIGERIA: PENULTIMATE week, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu signed into law the 2025 annual budget without any delay.

The President assent and timing will no doubt be recorded as one of the fastest signing of a budget by any sitting President in recent times.

One can say that in theory, the action is laudable, but the implementation, as it was in the past may still keep the hope afar from the citizens.

The signing has given hope that the nation may be on her way to economic recovery and new opportunities, our predicament will be the corrupt elites who only care for themselves at the expenses of the country and her citizens.

Their perfidy and corrupt life style have remained to haunt us as a nation and in all fronts both in economic politics and social development. Nigeria had been besieged by their greedy behavior that has left the ordinary citizens in poverty.

Whether the multi billion naira 2025 budget will bring lots of relieve is yet to be seen. Although the budget had been described as commendable by financial experts, especially on the appropriation, which they said will bring more life into the economy, they expressed fear on whether those saddled with the responsibility of executing the budget will not be compromised.

They bemoan of what they called ‘sad stories ‘ in the past budgets, both military and civilians, where cash backing are obtained for projects, and allegedly diverted into private pockets.

There is no doubt that such actions have created misgivings in the minds of the citizens who saw that those involved in corrupt practices were neither called to order or disciplined, as a way to scare away those who want to perpetuate frauds.

In the process, the corruption and the corrupted poses challenges to everything in the society and paved ways for other crimes, such as banditry, kidnapping, cybercrime among others.

The administration of the country must be organized and run in such a way that no one whatever his position in the society be allowed to go scot-free, if found guilty of any offence by a competent Court of jurisdiction.

The 2025 budget must also address the state of Nigeria pensioners and see that they were adequately catered for and monthly stipends pay when is due.Their new increments and arrears have been fully captured in the budget and payment should not be delayed.

Another area the administration should consider is whether pensioners should be given their entitlements when retired in order to start a new life, looking at the trillion of naira paid monthly on Pensioners.

Again, goverment agents should be giving encouragement in their point of duty, so as not to be involved in any corrupt practice, because of the fear of tomorrow which has become uncertain due to poor renumeration and encouragement.

The disparity in the payment of pension after retirement is not good for a nation such as ours, whereby someone retired and still collect his monthly salary as pension, while others are paid from percentage of the years served. This has also contributed to the large fraud in many goverment establishments.

As good and promising this year’s budget is said to be, the government must make sure that monies allocated into various projects are not diverted, and any contractor and their backing in the civil service caught should be punished and banned for certain years from working with any goverment parastatals.

The signing has given hope that the nation may be on her way to economic recovery and new opportunities, our predicament will be the corrupt elites who only care for themselves at the expense of the country and her people citizens.

Their perfidy and corrupt lifestyle have remained to haunt us as a nation and in all fronts both in economic politics and social development. Nigeria had been besieged by leaders that do not care for the people

In the process, they pose a challenge to everything in the society, which paved way for other crimes, from banditry kidnappings, cybercrime and many other bad and condemnable habits.

Unless a problem is recognized, it cannot be tackled meaningfully. This administration should monitor how projects are executed and the positive impact it has on the areas and the people.”OUR BUDGET, THEIR MONEY”?

Taking for example, allegations that fund allocated for projects in the past are diverted by some unscrupulous goverment official’s and contractors should not be tolerated. 

This time around, budgets allocations must be used for what is meant for, in order to avoid abandoned projects scattered around. It is the responsibility of those put in charge of monitoring of public projects to be people with credibility, and one who loves the nation to move forward. 

We must ensure that every Kobo of public money are spent judiciously, and projects are not only  completed, but done excellently. The activities of officials of government, both in States and the center to shortchanged the people and defraud the nation must stopped forthwith.

We have Budgets every year both the Federal Government and States governments’ only on paper and read to the citizens with fanfare, and the people benefits not much, despite the humongous amount allocated to projects.

Another area to study in executing projects by any goverment is to study what their predecessors left uncompleted , which are for people’s benefits and complete them before embarking on new ones.  

Any serious goverment must know that governance is a continuity and it behove on any goverment to study what are the uncompleted projects on the ground, which he meet and look at the benefits to the masses and not the  rush that you want to beat the one’s before my coming into power.

The action will not stop you from prioritizing your ideas and still leave a legacy that will hardly be forgotten for a very long time.

In conclusion, it has become important for our political leaders to get concerned over the wellness of the ordinary citizens to make him proud as a citizen of Nigeria.