Our budget process is very toxic and we haven’t been able to tame it. In spite of government’s promise to transit towards a zerobased budgeting regime, we are still stuck with the usual scenario where people sit in their offices and conjure all sorts of ‘

And even though the infrastructure we planned for are direly needed, the problem is the greed that has seized our system. Between corruption, and impunity plus hubris - a scenario where a few in government (especially politicians and those guys in the National Assembly), see nothing wrong with maxing out on illegal allowances and benefits while the nation goes to hell, Nigeria needs urgent rescue or else it crashes. to hell, Nigeria needs urgent rescue or else it crashes.

We should recall that China, USA, UK, and any country which takes itself serious already has its budget in play since the beginning of the year. In most serious countries, it is no longer a big issue to ensure that budgets work like clockwork. We could even look closer home. All around us are countries where their budgets are not a subject of controversies. Even Cameroun, Niger Republic, Chad, Benin, not to talk of South Africa, Algeria, Egypt Angola and other large and growing economies in Africa, don’t have our kind of unnecessary issues. You are what you do consistently. So, some of those countries if they are consistent in releasing their budgets early and planning for their people, may actually emerge faster than we do. That is why 2019 is very crucial for Nigeria. We must just change our ways.

Our budget process is very toxic and we haven’t been able to tame it. In spite of government’s promise to transit towards a zero-based budgeting regime, we are still stuck with the usual scenario where people sit in their offices and conjure all sorts of ‘pork barrel’ projects. Mr Segun Adeniyi, once wrote an article about how this works going by his experience working with President Yar’adua. The big men sit in their offices and get some memo from the budget office asking them to send in (usually what they intend to buy) in the coming year. Or what they want to build. Our ministries, departments and agencies, never cooperate. God forbid! Everyone is building an empire or at least a silos. And we have silos and empires, inside the already existing silos and empires. No one seas anyone. Any attempt to oversight any other person is met with stiff opposition. In fact it is a bloodspot of sorts. As against what happens in the USA (the global HQ of capitalism, democracy and federalism), whereby a single agency called the GOVERNMENT SERVICES AGENCY, undertakes procurement on behalf of all MDAs and from whom an agency of government requisitions whatever it needs based on justification, here, every MDA rushes to the market purchasing the same stuff, usually at madly different prices depending on the level of greed and carelessness of those involved. Eze Onyekpere has written copiously about this problem, including the illegal practice of inserting particular brands inside the budget and thereby foreclosing cheaper or better options. He has been roundly ignored.