Budget Historian and Economist, Tunji Ogunyemi, has recommended the Multi-year Budgeting System as the best solution for Nigerian government’s yearly routine of crisis over fiscal benchmarks.
Mr. Ogunyemi appeared on Sunrise daily on Channels Television to discuss issues of the 2014 budget.
He added that in a democratic system, disagreements cannot be ruled out especially on the issues of financing a state between the legislature and the executive but that of Nigeria is becoming rather uncomfortable.
There have been conflicts of ideas concerning what should be the Maximum Expenditure Limit and the oil price benchmark for the country with the legislature particularly insisting that it has the power to fix these figures.
Mr Ogunyemi said that the prices for the different categories of oil are internationally determined, and no legislature can just sit down to fix it. However, “the National Assembly under Section 82 to 84 of the Nigerian Constitution has the authority to determine the manner by which all monies earned by the Federation shall have to be spent.”
“We should just work out a way of running the Nigerian state not by default but by design. It is high time the National Assembly sat down with the Presidency to work out a multi-year budgeting system that will avoid all these yearly routine of crisis over benchmarks.
Describing the workings of the Multi-year Budgeting System, he explained that just like in the Medium Term Expenditure Framework, the Nigerian state will not have to “reinvent the wheel” every time it needs to budget.
“You can have a 3 year budget written in one single fiscal year, that way, the National Assembly will not have to pass the budget for 3 years separately. It will reduce first, the time of passage, it will also be economical, it will also achieve this idea of removing the crisis over who should have the authority to fix the Maximum Expenditure Limit.”
He agreed that the system has its own dangers, like the fluctuating international oil price and many others but “we cannot just go for the middle line.”
