THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY SHOULD ENSURE THAT THE 2022 BUDGET TRANSLATE INTO LIFE SAVING MEASURES FOR THE MASSES – OGUERINWA
Abuja: Rt. Hon. Dennis Oguerinwa Amadi, member representing Udi/Ezeagu Federal Constituency has appealed to his fellow parliamentarians to ensure that the 2022 Budget is well drilled to translate to lives saving measures to the masses on the street.
Amadi made the appeal while contributing to debate on the 2022 Budget during plenary at the House of Representatives on Thursday.
His submission read thus:
“Mr. Speaker, my colleagues has spoken on this current budget of over N16Trillions but the major concern is the indices propelling this N16Trillions. When we inject such a huge budget as a country, we expect a serious multiplier on the economic activities of the common man on the street.
“You have seen the debt service ratio of about N3.9Trillions to a country of over 200 millions. The balance of the budget is not enough to engineer economic activity for Nigerians and to take us out of the wood from the post Covid era we are just trying to overcome.”
Why I say so is that, on formulation of the budget which is the appropriation primary of the parliament, we need to look at the revenue side of the budget.”For instance, on the motion brought by the Chairman on Custom on E-collection. Buck of the collection we are doing today are mainly on import on items that can be manufactured in Nigeria.”As an economy, 25% of N275Billions collected by custom in the 2nd quarter is about N70Billions. I do not see why a country like Nigeria can not take a policy trust to enable the manufacturing sector which account for that N70Billions or thereabout.
“This policies are what drives budget all over the world and haven said so, it is important for us to know that such a policy measure to revamp the manufacturing sector of Nigeria at the various straddle, be it at the micro, midstream or conglomerate in the likes of Dangote will jumpstart this budget and translate it into additional economic activities of about N16Trillions again.”So we as a country are spending money. We did N11Trillions in 2021 and we are now budgeting for N16Trillions for 2022. If we don’t see it manifest in the economic activity of the average Nigerian in the street, it is going to affect all of us.”
Secondly, we look at the Energy sector. The modular refineries we approved for Niger Delta areas for years have not been optimized. This should create interventions from Central Bank of Nigeria to enable people who have these refineries to takeoff. We can not be bringing in petroleum products when we have graduates who can manage micro refineries, midterm refineries and on the aggregate, bring output that can serve Nigerians. This will bring alot of savings for the country and translate to real yield to our economic growth.”
Finally, as a parliament, we need to ensure that this budget is well drilled to translate to lives saving measures to the masses on the street”.
