THE BUHARI FACTOR

President Muhammadu Buhari and some ministers have returned the sum of N118 billion to the national treasury as unused capital budget for the 2017 fiscal year This amount represents 8.1 percent of N1.4 trillion which was the total capital budget released and almost four times the size of Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) budget in 2017, which was N30.3billion. Out of the N10.9billion released to the presidency as its capital budget, only N10.7 billion was utilised leaving a total of N200million as unused which was returned to the treasury according to the document. According to a document titled, “2017 capital performance for ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) as at June 12, 2018” obtained from office of the Accountant-General of the Federation, Mr. Babatunde Fashola of the Ministry of Works, Power and Housing topped the list of Ministers with highest amount of capital budget balance returned to the government coffer. While Ministries of Works, Power and Housing has N66.9billion, Ministry of Trade and Investment returned N22.8 billion as unused capital budget. Other ministries and agencies of the Federal Government in the category of top ten unused capital budget include, Office of the National Security Adviser with N6.1billion, Ministry of Finance, N4.3billion, Ministry of Health N3.5billion, office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation N3 billion. Also, Ministry of Education has N1.8b, while Ministry of Solid Minerals and Water Resources with N1.4b and N1.1b respectively. The National Population Commission (NPC) has N33.4 million, Ministry of Environment with N24.8 million and Head of Service, N13.1 million. The Ministry of Youth Development has N1.9 million followed by Ministry of Foreign Affairs which has N2.5 million and Ministry of Labour and Employment that has N3.2million, Others are Ministry of Interior, N4.5million, Fiscal Responsibility Commission N5.7 million, Niger Delta Ministry, N5.9 million and Defence which has N6.9million. This amounted to N101.5million. However, the National Emergency Agency (NEMA) whose emergency readiness has been suspect has as much as N193million unused capital budget. Out of the total releases which stood at N266 million, only N72.5 million was utilized leaving a balance of N193.5 million at a time the agency’s air ambulance and rescue helicopters were grounded over expired insurance policy that cost between N20million and N17 million for the two aircraft respectively. The document also revealed that the National Pension Commission (PENCOM) did not utilize the entire N375 million released to it for capital project while the National Hajj Commission of Nigeria (NAHCON) also failed to use its allocation of N298 million. DAILY POST reports that the execution of the 2017 budget was also adversely impacted by the late passage of the Budget as well as the shortfall in the expected oil and non-oil revenue receipts. This has never happened before in Nigeria. GOD BLESS NIGERIA.