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Wednesday, 8 November 2017

Why President Buhari’s budget speech is empty ritual – Pro-democracy group

- A pro-democracy group, HURIWA, says nationwide infrastructural decay and the poor living condition of millions of Nigerians shows that the 2017 budget has been implemented

- The body wonders where the huge budgetary releases to the ministry of defence went when the allowances of military combatants in the ongoing counter-terror war had not been paid up to date

- President Buhari bans fresh recruitment by all federal government ministries, departments and agencies, except by presidential approval.

A pro-democracy group, Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA), has described President Muhammadu Buhari’s budget speech as empty ritual and political rhetoric.

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The national coordinator, of the body, Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko, in a statement said the nationwide infrastructural decay and the poor living condition of millions of Nigerians showed that the 2017 budget had been implemented, Guardian reports.

The group listed the poor state of equipment and services at the presidential clinic in Abuja and the total breakdown of social amenities, including pipe-borne water at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos among others, as clear evidence that the 2017 budget had not been sufficiently implemented.

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HURIWA also wondered where the huge budgetary releases to the ministry of defence went when the allowances of military combatants in the ongoing counter-terror war had not been paid up to date.

It said there was apprehension in parts of the country over the threat by the Boko Haram sect to take over many key locations in the northeast.

Meanwhile, President Muhammadu Buhari on Tuesday, November 7, banned fresh recruitment by all federal government ministries, departments and agencies, except by presidential approval.

Punch reports that Buhari said this was to manage a rising personnel expenditure that was expected to increase to 12 per cent in 2018.

NAIJ.com gathered that he disclosed that overhead cost would also rise by N26bn in 2018 or 12 per cent increase.

Buhari spoke when he presented the estimates of the 2018 budget to a joint session of the Senate and the House of Representatives in Abuja.

The President laid a budget size of N8.612tn before the legislature for 2018, an increase of N1.7tn from the N7.44tn appropriated in 2017.

STREET GIST: Signing of 2017 budget in June, same old story? on NAIJ.com TV

Source: Naija.ng



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