Admin l Saturday, October 10, 2020
LAGOS, Nigeria – Former Vice President of Nigeria, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar has called on President Muhammadu Buhari to recall the N13.8 trillion appropriation he presented to the National Assembly for the 2021 fiscal year for recalibration.
Atiku made the call, following his observation that the proposal to borrow N5.21 trillion to finance the 2021 budget contravenes the 2007 Fiscal Responsibility Act because it is above 3% of Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product, GDP.
“Nigeria had a GDP of approximately $447 billion in 2019. Three percent (3%) of this amount is $13. 3 billion, which at the current official exchange rate of ₦379 to $1, gives you a figure of ₦5.07 trillion.
“So clearly, the budget deficit of ₦5.21 trillion, as announced by President Muhammadu, is above 3% of our GDP and is therefore in contravention of the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2007”, Atiku Abubakar said in a statement.
Even more disturbing, he asserted is the fact that our GDP has fallen sharply from its 2019 figures, and has been projected by the World Bank and other multilateral institutions at somewhere between $400 billion and $350 billion.
In actual sense, the former Vice President said is that the ₦5.21trillion budget deficit is actually far above the 3% threshold stipulated by the FRA.
He noted that the fact that this escaped the notice of the “Buhari administration shows a glaring lack of rigour in the formulation of the Budget. A very disturbing development. Furthermore, this deficit shows the precarious state of our national finances, which have since been overburdened by excessive borrowing on the part of the Buhari administration.
Read also, NIGERIA’S 2021 BUDGET APPROPRIATION OF N13.08 TRN
“It has not escaped my attention that the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2007 makes provision for the National Assembly to raise the threshold of the budget deficit from 3% to a higher figure. However, if this is done, they will be serving this administration’s interests, not Nigeria’s, because the Act says that such a threshold must be sustainable.
“ Is it sustainable when our budget makes almost as much provision for debt servicing, as it does for capital expenditure?
“As such, I call on the President, to recall this budget, and recalibrate it to reflect the provisions of the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2007, and the current economic realities of the nation.
“To do otherwise will not only be unpatriotic, it will also be catastrophic for our nation’s economy”, Atiku said.
