The Interview Editors
Senators have lauded President Muhammadu Buhari’s N16.39 trillion budget of economic growth and sustainability, describing it as feasible.
Across section of senators who spoke with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) shortly after the budget presentation on Thursday in Abuja described the budget as well packaged.
Senator Michael Opeyemi (APC-Ekiti) said that the budget has shown that the government was conscious of happenings in the country.
“The expansion of the figures from N13 trillion to N16 trillion is not because of the ambitious nature of the adminstration, but to capture a number of programmes and projects currently going on.
“The humanitarian sector that is getting additional N370 billion in the next two years will be able to expand its social security programmes,” Opeyemi said.
He said that the budget also has some areas of revenue shortfall.
“It meant we have to find additional means of funding our budget.
“But most importantly, it’s a call for us to look into the process of internally generating fund to further strengthen Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) by our agencies.
“And ensure that if we still have leakages to block such leakages. A number of things are also responsible for the fall in revenue. Some of them are reactions to global developments that are even beyond us in the country.
“The price of crude oil for instance, in the international market is something that go beyond what we think we are doing in Nigeria,” Opeyemi said.
He added, “Unfortunately, even when things are going up, our daily production of crude oil is getting lower than the expected projection of 1.88 million barrels per day, we fell to a situation where we are producing 1.2 million barrels per day.
“So even if price of crude oil is going up, the fact that we are producing less is a minus for us.
“So there is need for us to harness all of these and see how best we can block leakages and ensure that we improve in the area of income generation.”
Senator Uba Sani (APC-Kaduna) supported Opeyemi’s position, saying that the President presented a good budget.
“This is an ambitious budget because of the factors that affected every other sectors in the country caused by COVID-19, the budget is focused on these needs.
“The president has highlighted various priorities like security, infrastructure development like more rails, construction of more roads, support for educational and health care development and water supply to communities.
“These are key for countries like Nigeria that has faced two recession.
“The national assembly will ensure through its committees that agencies responsible for generating funds are able to do so,” he said.
Senator Elisha Abbo (APC-Adamawa) also commended the President on the budget.
“It is a good budget, given the challenges being faced by Nigerians.
“This budget and the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) implementation would raise fund for government to make more money to finance it,” he said.
But Senator Abiodun Olujimi (PDP-Ekiti) urged the government to focus more on gender equality in the country.
“We are used to getting tokens in the name of gender but with the specific mention of gender, we will see how far gender has been taken care of in the budget,” Olujimi said.
Buhari presented the N16.39 trillion 2022 budget to a joint session of the National Assembly for approval on Thursday.
(NAN)
