THE NEED FOR BUDGET RESPONSIBILITY

I see too much waste in our budget; honestly, we didn’t need a $36 billion budget in times of crisis.

We could have done a  budget within the range of our revenue capacity.
In the end, why have a budget if it will have low performance, and a lot of corruption? For instance, we all know that the constituency project debacle is real. I think it is something we should scrap or reduce.

If local government autonomy is practical, why then the need for constituency projects that get wasted in corruption? Many years ago, ICPC alluded to that, but nothing came out of it.

I think we need a sort of OBR – Office of Budget Responsibility. I don’t want to bloat the hitherto bureaucracy, but that can be funded like an independent think tank that evaluates projects by project and cuts corruption.

Over the years, our budgets are swayed more on the path of politics, and no nation can grow that way.

Fixing Nigeria starts from the budget process. If we can reduce budget fraud to about 20% and improve budget viability to over 60%, then we can have a ricochet effect on the felt economy.

The problem is there’s always a disconnect between the budget and the felt economy, and the impact ratio is minimal.

That should be the role of a budget responsibility office.

Rufai Oseni, rufaioseni@gmail.com