Division In Senate Over 2014 Budget

The Senate has finally commenced debate on the general principles of the N4.6trillion budget estimates presented by the Minister of Finance and Co-ordinating Minister of the Economy, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala on behalf of President Goodluck Jonathan.
Despite the Senate President, David Mark’s pleas to Senators ahead of the debate and during the debate that considerations and deliberations on the budget should be guided with nationalistic periscope, the debates, which on this first day featured senators from both the majority and minority parties, clearly presented a seeming divide across party lines with All Progressives Congress (APC) senators taking turns to lament the impropriety of the budget proposal, saying that it is total misplacement of priority of Nigerians.
They argued that the budget had failed to address the yearnings of ordinary Nigerians.
APC senators advised their colleagues in the ruling party to join hands with them to ‘recreate’ the budget, give it a more pragmatic approach to the economic challenges facing Nigeria.
Some of the senators also expressed disappointment over the inability of the co-ordinating minister of the economy, to stem the tide of escalating capital expenditure while some called for her outright resignation from the cabinet.
The PDP senators, on the other hand, expressed confidence in the budget proposals, saying that hasty passage of the budget will go a long way to satisfy the financial needs of Nigeria.
They also urged the opposition party senators to desist from comments that will encourage violent groups across the country, emphasising that the wellbeing of every Nigerian should be the priority in the consideration of the budget.
Leading the debate, Senate Leader, Senator Victor Ndoma-Egba said that the budget constitutes of N399,687,801,891.00, and N712,000,000,000.
He said that while the recurrent expenditure (non-debt) stands at N2,430,665,361,597.00, capital expenditure has an estimate of N1,100,666,836,512.00.
According to the Senate leader, the major thrust of the 2014 budget was job creation, which would be achieved through consolidation of structural reforms, macro- economic stability and diversification of the economy through emphasis on agriculture and investments in priority sectors.
From Ndoma-Egba ‘s presentation  education, defence, police, Subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment Programmes (SURE-P) and health received the largest chunk of the capital budget in the 2014 budget.
Education has N725.94billion, defence N340.33billion, police N301.42billion, SURE-P N268.37billion, health  N262.74billion, works N128.65billion, power N99.05billion, agriculture and rural development N66.64billion, while INEC has N45.00billion.
TheDeputy Senate President, Ike Ekwerenmadu, in his contribution, regretted that some critical projects in the 2013 budget were excluded in the 2014 budget, urging that such projects should be restored.
He also cautioned that the 2014 budget should be judiciously utilised in other to fulfil the promise made to Nigerians.
Also speaking, the Minority Leader, Senator Gorge Akume (APC-Benue), criticised the SURE-P budget, saying that over the last two years, the programme has not been managed transparently.
He said the N268.37billion budgeted for the SURE-P should be scrutinised, to ascertain the specific projects on which the funds were being spent.
Also speaking, Ahmed Lawan (APC-Yobe North), said the over N163 billion for the Niger Delta region was enormous and unjust, compared to N2 billion budgeted for the North East, even as he lamented that the budget earmarked for defence was insignificant compared to what the Niger Delta would receive in the 2014 budget.
According Senator Akume, “the Finance Minister has not been able to reduce the recurrent expenditure as she promised. There is need to fund the security adequately because there are security challenges in Nigeria.
“The Amnesty Programme and the 30,000 ex-militants would have N52billion while defence would have much less, just about N43billion. What we are saying is that you have a state of emergency in the North East states. Fund the security agencies better. Our states carry the burden of funding of the security agencies in our place.”
He further noted that the 2014 budget is only beneficial to less than five million Nigerians, calling on the National Assembly to rework the budget to address the current reality.
According to him, “74 per cent of the annual budget is going to less than five million Nigerians. 26 per cent is earmarked for in the capital expenditure for over 165 million Nigerians. How do you create jobs? How do you alleviate poverty”.
Senator Sadiq Yar’Adua said the budget was nothing but a document of foreign agents like the Finance Minister, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala , meant to further pauperize the Nigeria masses.
While speaking, Senate spokesperson, Enyinnaya Abaribe, cited the case of Rivers State, where the state House of Assembly, dominated by APC lawmakers met and passed the 2014 budget in less than one hour, calling on the National Assembly to do same, to avoid wasting time.
While reacting to Senator Abaribe’s comments,  Senator Olusola Adeyeye , (APC-Osun Central), sharply raised a point of order but however was overruled by the Senate President.

L-R:Chairman, Board of Trustees, Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents, Chief Henry Njoku, Comptroller-General, Immigration, Mr David Paradan, member,House Committee on Diaspora Affairs, Rep. Jerry Alagbaoso, Deputy Comptroller-General of Customs, Dr Manassah Jatau, representative of Comptroller-General of Customs, DCG John Atte, Commandant-General of NSCDC, Dr Ade Abolurin and Controller-General of Prisons, Mr Zakari Ibrahim, launching Naija Customs Magazine at the International Customs Day in Abuja, last Monday

Nneka Amaechi-Nnadi, Abuja