The Lead Director, Centre for Social Justice, Mr Eze Onyekpere, says the allocation of 23.7 per cent to capital expenditure in Nigeria’s 2014 budget is too small to push the needed infrastructure development.
Analysing Nigeria’s 2014 budget on Channels Television Programme, the Gavel, Mr Onyekpere stressed that the allocation was very poor for a country aspiring to rank among the top 20 world economies by 2020.
He said that his organisation took a critical look at the ‘frivolous and wasteful expenditure’ in the budget.
“Huge amount of money is spent on travels, refreshments, security and other unnecessary expenses.
“What do these figures contribute to the nation? Nothing!
“What the government is doing is not sustainable and not the way for a country that had a lot of infrastructure deficit. It is unsustainable and the more we do this, we get worse,” he explained.
In 2013, Nigeria allocated about 27 per cent of the budget to capital expenditure.
But Mr Onyekpere pointed out that Nigeria had never used above 60 per cent of its capital expenditure.
“Going by this, you will be talking about using only 12 to 13 per cent of the budget by the end of the year.
“But of course, the recurrent expenditure is fully drawn down by the end of the year,” he said.
He said that his organisation had submitted its observation of the unnecessary expenditure to the National Assembly which had not responded.
He stressed the need for transparency in handling the budget, saying that Nigerians both the literates and illiterates should have a fair knowledge of what the budget contained and how it was spent.
Mr Onyekpere called on Nigerians to speak out and kick against the wasteful expenses by the government in order to drive the government to adjusting the expenses and channel the funds into capital expenditure.
Wages and bills have the highest allocations in the 2014 budget, a development that economists and analysts have condemned.
The Centre for Social Justice’s head called for an empirical way of determining the wage structure in Nigeria based on an individual’s contribution to the nation’s economy.
“The bloated wage of some members of the National Assembly should be based on such justification,” he said.