The Minister of Budget and National Planning, Senator Udoma Udo Udoma, has failed to reverse the country’s uncertain budget cycle to January to December after several promises and assurance since he assumed office. For many years, Nigeria’s budget cycle has been inconsistent; without a definite pattern, giving rise to speculations and poor execution. And the President Buhari in 2015, campaigned that he will reverse the budget cycle to January to December, but in its first term, his administration could not fulfill the promise. Again, Sen. Udoma earlier in 2019 indicated that the administration would not be achieving that feat perhaps until the 2020 budget cycle. The earliest budget ever was that of 2013 which was submitted to the National Assembly in October, 2012, and assented by a former President, Goodluck Jonathan, in February, 2013. Nigerians will not be surprised given the administration’s appalling record of budget management formulation and execution over the course of the past budget cycles, as its first budget was not presented to the National Assembly until December, 2015, and that budget took the National Assembly nearly six months to conclude for the president’s eventual signature in May, 2016. Subsequent budgets proved to be worse as they took longer times to prepare and present. These were some of the serious issues economists and experts identified with the country’s poor budget performance which led to prolonged cycle of poor capital budget performance. The Head of Economics Department, University of Abuja, Dr. Isa Mohammed, explained that Nigeria operated a complex budgetary system characterised by delays and inefficiencies which often limited budget performance. He noted that lately the country’s budget was passed four to about six months into the budget year, therefore, limiting the performance period and rate of implementation of capital projects. Also, a Kwara-based economist, Yaqubu Mohammed, blamed the delay in budget passage on the National Assembly, noting that they were not on the same page with the executive. He noted that for the country to function efficiently, the executive and legislature must work together and be in sync. Yaqubu said in the past years, the delay in the passage of the budget had created room for inconsistency which in turn affected plans of other economic players. Also, some of the more serious issues associated with Nigeria’s budget are structural in nature, hence the prolonged cycle of poor capital budget performance characterised by the delays and inefficiencies. Binta Yahya, a Professor of Economics, Yobe State University, said Nigeria’s procurement process was also responsible for delays and poor implementation of capital projects, highlighting some key challenges facing the procurement process to include undue political interference in bidding process, capital challenges, mismatch between budgetary allocations and actual releases, as well as improper documentation. She said these challenges would continue to affect the procurement process resulting in poor implementation of capital projects and also warned government to cut down frivolous recurrent expenditure which could free up spending by a significant amount. Experts in the academic and financial fields have said the budget during Udoma’s time as minister had been associated with many errors and therefore have called on the Federal Government to honour its promise in the next tenure to return the budget to the normal January to December. They explained that the budget calendar must be reversed and be consistent for the country to experience improved and consistent growth. They also noted that it was not sufficient to offer assurances with regards the changes without proper action taken to work those assurances. Aside the delay in the budget passage, the ministry flagged off and gradually implemented the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP), although some experts believe the plan has not delivered on its mandate of removing the constraints to growth in areas of fuel and power. The ministry also provided low-level jobs to thousands of youths captured in the social intervention plan (N-SIP programme) and the homegrown school feeding programme, which is believed to reach about 30 million students. The school feeding programme was one of the campaign achievements of the APC in the last elections and that was one of the most popular achievements of which the party sought re-election at the federal level. Under Udoma’s reign as minister, Nigeria’s economy exited recession in September, 2018, after five consecutive contractions. The recession rendered many Nigerians unemployed with the Nigerian Bureau of Statistics (NBS) putting the figure in the third quarter alone at above two million people.
