President Muhammadu Buhari, has reduced the N37 billion budget for the renovation of the National Assembly complex to N27.7 billion.
The Federal Government, in the 2020 revised budget proposal, cut N9.3 billion from the budget for the renovation of the National Assembly complex.
The renovation of the complex at the initial cost of N37 billion, which is to be executed by the Federal Capital Territory Administration, FCTA, attracted criticisms from a large section of Nigerians, amid the Covid-19 pandemic, and its impact on Nigerian businesses, with many concerned Nigerians and organisations calling on the Federal Government to use the funds to better the lives of Nigerians and their suffering businesses instead.
However, following the drop in the price of crude oil and a fall in the projected government revenue, it was learnt that the Federal Government decided to reduce the budget for the renovation, ignoring the calls to cancel the renovation in its entirety for now.
President Buhari had on Thursday, presented the 2020 Appropriation Act (amendment) Bill to the National Assembly, which both the Senate and the House of Representatives passed for second reading on the same day.
Buhari explained that the amendment became necessary, in view of the sharp decline in crude oil prices, and the cut in Nigeria’s crude oil production quota, occasioned by the Covid-19 pandemic.
In the proposed revised budget, while the National Assembly complex renovation budget was reduced to N27.7 billion (a reduction of 25.1 percent), the Basic Health Care Provision Fund, which is meant to cater for all the Primary Healthcare Centres across the 774 Local Government Areas in the country, was significantly reduced from N44.4 billion to N25.5 billion, a decrease of more than 42.5 percent, lesser than the funds approved for the renovation of the National Assembly complex.
The Universal Basic Education, UBE, fund was also reduced significantly from N111.7 billion to N51.1 billion, by more than 54.2 percent, according to documents obtained by Dataphyte, an open data organisation.
The UBE is a reform programme aimed at providing greater access to quality basic education throughout Nigeria.
It seeks to ensure an uninterrupted access to a 9-year formal education, by providing free and compulsory basic education for every child of school-going age.
Incidentally, the budget for the National Assembly which was N128 billion, was cut by only 10 percent, bringing its revised total budget to N115.2 billion.
The same calculation was applied to the National Judicial Council, NJC, as its N110 billion original budget was reduced by just 10 percent, bringing it down to N99 billion.
Speaking on Tuesday, the Founder, Dataphyte, Joshua Olufemi, described the cuts in critical sectors like Education and Health, as a setback to Nigeria’s quest for development.
Olufemi said: “But the bigger dilemma borders on Nigeria’s priority. While budgetary allocations to the National Judicial Council, National Assembly, Independent National Electoral Commission, and other agencies of government have been reduced only by about 10 percent respectively, budgetary provision for education is reduced by close to 55 percent.
“Similarly, provision for basic health care fund is reduced by over 42 percent. With the reality of the Covid-19 pandemic, reduction in budgetary share for education and healthcare does not reflect the prioritisation of the citizen’s real needs.
“With the growing number of Covid-19 cases in the country, an increase in budget share to the health sector is expected. To expand education access to the teeming Nigerian schoolchildren who are deprived of education during this period, additional budgetary commitment is also required. This is to cover up the cost of setting up virtual learning alternatives.”
In his comment, the Executive Chairman, Centre for Anti-Corruption and Open Leadership, Debo Adeniran, said that it is unfortunate that Nigeria, which is the poverty capital of the world, would relegate the Health and Education sectors.
Adeniran stated that Nigeria has one of the highest maternal and mortality rates in the world as well as out of school children and the government ought to give priority to health and education.
He said: “Why should we waste N27 billion on building that is not showing any sign of distress? It is a misplaced priority and a total waste. The National Assembly does not need repainting let alone renovation.
“Nigeria is the poverty capital in the world despite being one of the most endowed countries. It is the misplaced of priorities that brought us to this sorry state we found ourselves.
“Nigerians are dying from treatable and preventable diseases and the government thinks it is right to slash the health budget while maintaining the N27 billion for renovation? It is a shame.”
Also speaking, the Executive Director of Human and Development Agenda, Lanre Suraj, noted that Buhari could not claim not to be aware of the injustice being done to Nigerians.
Suraj stated that reducing the Health budget, showed that the government has not learnt any lessons from the Covid-19 pandemic.
He said: “It will be very difficult to absolve the President of the blame. This is a disservice to young people and Nigerians in general. It is obvious the government doesn’t have the interest of the masses at heart.
“The pandemic has exposed the poor state of the public health centres as they have failed to meet up to standard in the pandemic. To reduce the basic health care fund by almost 50 per cent and then maintain the budget for National Assembly complex renovation which has no bearing on the people is a betrayal of trust and all citizens must reject it.”
In December last year, there was an outrage over the N37 billion budgeted for the renovation of the National Assembly complex, amid dwindling allocations to important sectors.
Curiously, before the budget was reviewed, while N37 billion was budgeted for the repair of the National Assembly complex, N36.6 billion was allocated for the repair of Federal roads.
The Senate had said that the outrage was misplaced, on the grounds that the National Assembly Leadership plays no role either in the approval, the execution, or the cost of the project.