17th March, 2015
Eromosele Ebhomele
Governor Babatunde Fashola on Tuesday announced that the current poor economic status of Nigeria is a reason for the state to begin to think of how best to implement the 2015 budget of the state.
Fashola spoke with members of the state House of Assembly when he visited the lawmakers during a special session of the House.
He appealed for an amendment to the state’s 2015 budget to enable the state judiciously implement the budget for the year.
He said the current economic situation of the country, which is the result of the global fall in the price of crude oil, would definitely affect the implementation of its 2015 Appropriation Law as the amount accruing to the state from the Federation Account has dropped.
He said apart from this fall in the price of crude oil, the country’s economic challenge was further heightened by the postponement of the general elections in the country and increase in exchange rate saying these are serious impediments to the targeted income of the state government.
Apart from this, the Federal Government is frustrating strategies for states of the country to get funds from banks for political reasons, he told the lawmakers.
Fashola revealed that the actions of the managers of the nation’s economy have been inconsistent as the nation’s external reserve has dwindled consistently.
As a result of all these challenges, he said the purchasing power of the people of the country has reduced considerably and that the monthly shares of the Lagos State Government from the Federation Account has dropped from N11 billion to N10 billion.
Fashola, who noted that the state grossed a revenue performance of 86 percent in 2014, added: “the budget performance terminates with the revenue, which is about 80 percent. We are the only government that has performed up to 80 percent in the last three years.
“We want to propose an amendment of the budget of all the agencies of government to the actual income of the revenue. It is not reduction of the budget, but to propose that no section gets up to 100 percent of its budgetary allocation,” he said.
Governor Fashola maintained that the Nigerian economy is “caught in troubled waters,” adding that without electricity supply, prospects of alternative economic regeneration such as agriculture, small scale enterprises, tourism and others is always impossible.
He condemned a situation, where the Nigerian government votes less than 30 percent for capital expenditure and over 70 percent for recurrent expenditure.
According to him, the dwindling fortunes of the Nigerian government would affect Lagos State being the most populous state and the one that contributes most to the nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
He revealed that the country’s Minister of Finance and the Co-ordinating Minister for the Economy, Mrs. Okonjo Iweala has instructed Nigerian banks not to give loans to any state government without her approval.
Fashola said a personal research he conducted recently showed that more than 5,000 workers from four construction companies have their jobs in the last three months while 2400 people lost their banking jobs in March, 2015 due to the poor state of the nation’s economy.
He said many importers, he said are now unable to clear their goods at the ports due to the high exchange rate while the Nigerian Stock Exchange lost a whooping N4 trillion due to the postponement of the general elections.
He said when President Goodluck Jonathan visited the Nigerian Stock Echange, he said that “this was not all that bad.”
Fashola quoted the President as saying he met a fall of N6 trillion when he got to power.
He also said the news that the International Monetary Fund, IMF, is moving for a further devaluation of the economy is frightening. Election season is not a season for illegality,” he said.
The Governor condemned the model of leadership of the PDP which he said is now fully revealed with the state of the economy.
He also said that the election period is meant to reflect on the performances of the government.
While talking about security, the Governor compared the rally of the All Progressives Congress, APC, in Lagos on 7 March with that of the supporters of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, on 16 March and submitted that the supporters of the latter were violent.
The Governor, who said he received several complaints from the people after the PDP rally through text messages, phone calls and e-mail, assured the people of adequate security and urged them to go about their normal businesses.