Budget presentation by the Executive arm of government before the Parliament has become an annual ritual in Nigeria. On the day set aside for this auspicious occasion, the President addresses the joint sitting of both chambers of the National Assembly, and is expected to explain the performance of the budget in the year under review and the projections for the coming year. On the 14th of December 2016, President Buhari presented a budget of 7.298 Trillion naira to the National Assembly and the budget has been in the process of passage ever since. While waiting on the national assembly to do the needful on the budget, I will be doing an analysis of same with respect to the youth constituency.
Youths account for over 40% of Nigeria’s population, with ages ranging between 18 and 35 years. The Youth are the strength and future of every nation on the surface of the earth, and as such, their needs must be given priority. In Nigeria the youths are regarded as the future leaders, yet we do have a government without adequate representation of this key demographic, led by a president at the ripe old age of 74. Coming back to the subject of this article which aims to examine the budgetary provisions for Nigerian youths in the year 2017, I would have loved to start form the 2016 budget but I don't know which of the budgets to use: In 2016 alone, there was the Original Budget submitted to the National Assembly by the President, the Missing Budget from the National Assembly and the Padded Budget. Till today we don't know the one signed by the President. While we are still confused as to which one of these three was actually signed into law, more confusion stems from a statement attributed to the Minister of Youth and Sports Development, Mr Solomon Dalung who declared that "The Funds spended in the 2016 budget were Properly spended” (Sic), despite the protests embarked upon last year by the Super Falcons over payment of their allowances. As a result we have to keep moving forward and not backward.
The 2017 budget for the ministry of Youth and Sports stipulates a total recurrent expenditure of 78.4 billion naira, while the capital expenditure is estimated at about N5Bn for both Youth and Sports. But our Focus is on the Youth Aspect of the Budget.
Dear readers, it's so evident that the 2017 budget for the Youth is a zero budget! Zero in the sense of its inability to set a clear-cut programme of innovation for our youths. Apart from the known rhetoric of buying computers and chairs and organising seminars, innovation in the ministry’s budget is zero. Let me walk you through what the budget has in stock for the youth in 2017.
A Counterpart Fund for youth development Programme in conjunction with UNIDO will gulp N30 million, while the National Youth Council’s (NYC) meetings will consume N50.15 million. The question begging an answer is, what has been the contribution of NYC to the lot of our teeming youth population asides being an arm of the ruling party. No single Youth out there can say for certain what NYC has achieved so far, nor how they are elected or selected. They don’t even have a website. The Current NYC President Ikenga Ugochinyere is an aide to the Senate President, Dr Bukola Saraki. The same NYC President was arrested by the DSS last year for criminal activity. A future leader indeed! Let’s move on, please.
Youth Internship Programmes in Private Organizations will account for N40 million. How that will be spent is anyone’s guess, as there are lots of Nigerians on internships in private organisations who haven’t received a dime from the FG. Youths in Agriculture will receive N200 million, while establishment of innovation hubs in selected universities across the six geopolitical zones will cost N35 million. Supply and installation of a digital mobile x-ray machine in Abuja will similarly cost N45 million, but when did the Ministry establish a Hospital? Dalung needs to tell us. Facilitation of ministerial appearances with analysts on social media, TV and radio will gulp a whopping N180 million??? It's high time every Nigerian got a licence for radio and TV so as to at least benefit from this largesse! And that ends it all. There is nothing significant about the budget.
This budget has shown that the Nigerian Youth should expect nothing from the Government in 2017, which is a pointer to the fact that the Muhammadu Buhari led Government is not ready to change anything, in contrast to its change mantra.
The same Ministry of Youth which has budgeted fictitious amounts of Money for phantom projects will be spending N22 million on “Staff education and enlightenment on the evil of corruption”. What an irony. They will likewise spend N80 million on the monitoring and evaluation of capital projects. That being the case, Dalung needs to tell us what grand projects his ministry has in Jupiter, that will require such fortune to oversee. As if that were not enough, the Ministry intends to spend 60 cool million on the National Youth and Sports Development Road Map, Dalung needs to explain to us how the 60m will be spent and how it will put food on our tables. I could go on and on listing the discrepancies and the zero status of the 2017 budget for the Nigerian Youth.
That being said, Nigerian youths seem likely to benefit from the Ministries of Power, Works and Housing, Nigeria Delta and Agriculture, with over 400Billion Naira budgeted for training of youths in vocational and other skills in federal colleges of Agriculture and Horticulture across the whole Federation.
That Solomon Dalung has overstayed his welcome is an understatement, but President Buhari sees nothing wrong with this square peg in a round hole as long as “The funds spended in the budget were properly spended"
May God have Mercy on Nigeria.
Adesina Tosin Nathaniel is a Forward Looking Nigerian Youth
For more of his writings visit www.donteewrites.blogspot.com
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