In spite of being caught in the maelstrom of plummeting oil revenues, the Federal Government has still not come to terms with the imperative of preparing a realistic national budget. Even by Nigeria’s dismal standards, the 2015 budget proposals laid before the National Assembly by the Finance Minister, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, is a sorry joke. So unrealistic is it that the key pillars of the budget were collapsing while the minister was still pontificating before the federal legislators. The Federal Government should be bold enough to admit that it has goofed yet again and withdraw the woolly document at once.
Just how low public service has sunk here is evident in the derailment of the key assumptions of the N4.46 trillion spending plan. Oil prices continued their headlong plunge by dipping to $51.6 per barrel on Wednesday, effectively upturning the budget that was rashly predicated on an assumed average oil price of $65 pb. With oil revenues providing 75 per cent of all public earnings and 90 per cent of the national budget, it is obvious that the plan is a non-starter.
