The Minister of Budget and National Planning, Senator Udo Udoma, disclosed this in Abuja during a public dialogue with top government officials, members of civil society organisations and the Organised Private Sector, among others, on the 2018-2020 Medium Term Expenditure Framework and Fiscal Strategy Paper.

He said the decision to submit the 2018 budget proposal early was in line with provisions of the Fiscal Responsibility Act, 2000.

Udoma noted that the early submission of the budget proposal to the lawmakers would give them enough time to consider the fiscal document and pass it on time.

The minister said the overall goal of the government was to ensure that the country returned to a predictable budget year, which would run from January to December.

“We are having extensive consultations and all the inputs from the various consultations will be taken into consideration in preparing the MTEF and Fiscal Strategy Paper.

“The MTEF outlines the Federal Government’s fiscal policies and our macroeconomic projections for the next three years from 2018 to 2020, and it provides the broad framework for the 2018 budget.

“And as you know, we are committed to delivering the 2018 budget to the National Assembly by the beginning of October, and this is part of that process.”

Explaining the parameters for the 2018 budget, he said that the Federal Government was targeting to spend the sum of N7.9tn as against N7.44tn this year, adding that the fiscal deficit was expected to rise to N2.77tn from N2.35tn in the 2017 fiscal year and that there was no need for Nigerians to panic about the country’s debt burden.

Udoma added that the nation’s debt profile was sustainable as it was still within the threshold approved by the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2007.

According to the minister, there is no country in the world that does not borrow, nothing that the Federal Government was well capable of meeting its obligations to creditors.

“We are maintaining our deficit and debts within sustainable limits. Debt financing will be restructured gradually in favour of foreign financing as part of the strategy to lower debt service burden and free up more fiscal space for the private sector,” he added.

The minister said the government was targeting total oil production volume of 2.3 million barrels per day, with an oil price benchmark of $45 per barrel.

He added that the plan of the government in 2018 was to reduce inflation rate to 12.42 per cent with a Gross Domestic Product growth rate of 4.8 per cent and nominal GDP of N133.97tn.

In terms of revenue projections, Udoma stated that the government was targeting the sum of N5.16tn for 2018 as against N5.08tn in 2017.

Of this amount, N2.1tn is to be generated from oil revenue; non-oil revenue is expected to contribute N1.36tn; dividend from Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas, N29.58bn; and revenue from minerals and mining, N1.06bn.

Others are independent revenue from agencies of government, N847.9bn; domestic recoveries and fines, N364bn; other Federal Government recoveries, N138.43bn; and grants and donor funding, N281.6bn.

In terms of expenditure, the minister explained that the government was planning to spend the sum of N2.63tn on non-debt recurrent expenditure, while N350bn would be set aside for special intervention programmes.

For capital expenditure, Udoma said the sum of N2.4tn would be spent on capital projects’ implementation as against the N2.17tn approved for 2017.

“We are addressing the recurrent and capital spending imbalance. Government will continue to allocate at least 30 per cent of its budgeted expenditure to capital projects,” he added.

The minister described the targets of the government in 2018 as ambitious, but noted that they were achievable.

He said, “In line with the goals of the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan 2017-2020, the medium term fiscal policies of government will be directed at achieving macroeconomic stability, accelerating growth, intensifying economic diversification and promoting inclusiveness.

“The need to look onwards to boost non-oil revenues cannot be overemphasized as we diversify. We are on track to achieve full recovery and return firmly to the path of growth. Fiscal prudence must be observed at all levels of governance.”

The event was attended by the Minister of State for Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed; Director-General, Budget Office of the Federation, Ben Akabueze; and Director-General, Debt Management Office, Patience Oniha, among others.

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Among the economic team he suggested that should be sacked include the Ministers of Finance, Kemi Adeosun; Budget and National Planning, Udoma Udo Udoma and Governor of the Central bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele.

Melaye, chairman, Senate Committee on the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) stated this in a statement entitled: “Buhari-The barking is over, it’s time to bite.”

While expressing worry by the poor state of the economy which has brought unprecedented hardship and hunger on the masses of the Nigerian people, he said sacking the economic team would be the only solution to reboot the ailing economy.

Melaye accused most members of the President’s cabinet of gross incompetence, inexcusable ineptitude and a distressing lack of capacity to deliver on the mandate of their ministries/agencies, adding Buhari must shake up his cabinet.

“At the moment, it must be crystal clear to all discerning minds that the President’s widely-acclaimed magical body language has lost its presumed aura and efficacy. His no-nonsense demeanor is equally neither instilling fear nor commanding respect and loyalty from amongst his cabinet members.

“It is therefore obvious that the time for barking is over, now is the time to bite and boot out all those who have demonstrated, in the past several months, a crass lack of capacity to effectively carry out the functions of their office.

“The Finance Minister has not only displayed gross incompetence on the Job, she also lacks the basic and rudimentary grasp of economic fundamentals necessary to run a critical sector of the Nigerian economy like the Finance Ministry.

“It is time for her to go now and pave way for a qualified and experienced person to steer the Nigerian economy away from the dark woods it has sunk presently under her stewardship.

“To be sure, Senator Udoma Udo Udoma is a very charismatic man, an accomplished lawyer, and a quintessential gentleman with a fairly untainted reputation. In everyday parlance, he is a good man. But the critical job of Budget and National Planning Minister for a huge country like Nigeria, with her prevailing economic challenges requires much more than being a good man with a great personality.

“It is for someone with the relevant qualification, professional knowledge and experience in public sector finance, development economics, strategic thinking, budgetary planning and management.

“As a lawyer, accomplished in this field as he is, Udoma’s appointment to that position is nepotism taken to very ridiculous heights; and a classic case of putting round pegs in square holes-it will, and can never fit. It is akin to saddling a carpenter with a tailor’s responsibility.

“The outcome under the circumstances, as has become evidently clear, is bound to be catastrophic for the economy. President Buhari must therefore do the needful now by relieving Udoma of this huge burden that is constituting a clog to the revival of the Nigerian economy,” Melaye said.

He regretted Emefiele’s “disastrous handling and release of the so-called Dasuki-gate funds which amounts to about 15 per cent of the nation’s foreign reserves.”

He also accused the CBN Governor of policy flip-flops, summersaults and inconsistencies as clear evidence of gross incompetence in the management of the nation’s fiscal and monetary policies.

The net effect of this inconceivable ineptitude on the part of Emefiele, according to Melaye, is “the free fall in the value of the naira and the total loss of faith and confidence by the international community on the Nigerian economy.”

To reverse the trend, Melaye challenged President Buhari to muster the courage to wield the big stick and give Emefiele the boot, to be replaced by a fiscal and monetary policy guru.

“We have these qualified Nigerians in abundance, and the President must beam his searchlight to find them to help him, the Nigerian economy as well as the suffering Nigerian masses”, he stated.

He also called on the President to immediately discountenance the Economic Team currently under the supervision of the Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osibanjo “as their decisions will not be; and has never been respected by the economic managers and the bureaucracy in Nigeria.”

Instead, Melaye urged the President to constitute an “Emergency Ad hoc Economic Team” made up of all former Ministers of Finance, Budget and National Planning, CBN Governors as well as members drawn from the academia with “deep knowledge of developmental economics to drive the economic revival programme.”

“The President must immediately transit from mere rhetoric to drastic but positive action to save the economy and Nigeria from total collapse. The hunger in the land is real, pervasive, widespread and debilitating for the poor masses.

“As I walk the streets of my constituency these days, I constantly harbor a foreboding that I could be stoned by my angry constituents for the failure of Mr President to fulfill his campaign promises and expectations to Nigerians”, he said.

“Nigeria is tottering on a dangerous precipice, sliding perilously to a certain catastrophe if the current economic malaise is not halted immediately”, he declared, even as he said his criticism is borne out of an altruistic fervour, and not a product of sour grapes akin to some traditional critics of “Every Government in Power (EGIP)”, he added.

Nigerians and Buhari, he said, should be able to recall with little difficulty that “I was a permanent fixture at the All Progressive Congress (APC’s) Presidential campaign rallies and events, functioning mostly as the Master of Ceremonies (MC).

He said, “I am a proud APC member, a party bonafide with a great stake in the success or failure of this administration, so no one can accuse me of sour grapes or meddlesomeness. I am a truly concerned stakeholder presently bothered by the imminent, clear and present danger of a still-birth of a Change Agenda that held so much hope and promise for Nigerians a little over a year ago.

“While there is a lot of hunger, anger, anguish and despair currently in the land, I have a firm belief that the situation is not beyond redemption for Mr President, hence my call for urgent and drastic remedial action now.”

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Fashola, who spoke at the inaugural Buharimeter Town Hall meeting in Abuja on Thursday, said contractors had abandoned several projects because the last administration owed them money.

The former governor of Lagos State said even though the Muhammadu Buhari-led administration had yet to release funds to the contractors, they were willing to return to site because they trusted the integrity of the new government.

“In 2014, we spent N45bn on roads for the whole country and we spent N18bn on roads in 2015. Now, the fallout of meetings with our contractors generally is that they have not been paid for three years but budgets were made for the last three years.

“We have been having meetings with some contractors on the basis of our credibility, our collective integrity, saying to them go back to site.

“Our contractors will go back to site on Monday next week; they have told me they will return to the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway.

“They have not been paid but that is what change means, that this government is credible and believable. If we say we will pay, we will pay. And this is what you will see in places like Iheala and a few other places where we are intervening.

“But what is important now is that we have met with all our contractors and identified contracts that have survived the budget, we have approved those contracts for funding and in the next few days to weeks, the disbursement will start for many of the roads.”

Fashola, however, lamented that the activities of the Niger Delta Avengers were seriously affecting power generation due to the vandalism of oil and gas installations.

He said for Nigeria to be better, citizens must protect government installations like it was done in other countries, stating that the newly constructed railway was already being vandalised.

“The Minister of Transportation (Rotimi Amaechi) just told me that vandals were removing nuts and rails for railway,” Fashola said.

Also speaking, the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Chief Audu Ogbeh, said several states had made land available for cattle ranching.

Ogbeh said the cattle ranching programme would start soon, adding that the move would improve animal farming across the country.

He explained that milk production was very low in Nigerian livestock because cows were often dehydrated after walking long distances across the country and not getting enough water and quality grass, noting that with the ranching programme, things would improve.

The minister added, “We want to end the cattle grazing ‘wahala’ between herdsmen and farmers. We have 45 million hectares of land and there is no reason why there should be any fight over where grass is grown, but ladies and gentlemen, grass is not just grass.

“If the grass does not have up to 15 per cent protein, amino acids and trace elements, it is not good for even a cow to eat, and make no mistakes, the food that cows eat passes unto human beings through meat and milk.

“So, if you give them high quality grass and water, when you eat beef, you are eating good quality food. If not, you’re eating chaff. Finally, when the cows march from Maiduguri to Lagos, the distance is too long.

“So, the cows in Nigeria have the lowest yield of milk in the world, one litre per day, four months per lactation, because the cows have no access to water.”

Ogbeh said the Federal Government was already having talks with the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps to train rangers that would fight cattle rustlers and monitor ranches.

“Banditry, rustling and attacks on farmers are increasing. We are looking at asking a unit of the civil defence to train what we are going to call farm rangers to protect investment in livestock and heavy investments in agriculture.

“We do not intend to invite you to invest in a ranch and come one day to hear that all your cattle were taken away by rustlers in the middle of the night,” the minister stated.

The Minister of Information, Culture and Tourism, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, assured Nigerians that the Buhari-led administration would not renege on its promises.

He admitted that he might have made too many promises during the build-up to the last election after he was told by the Director of Centre for Democracy and Development, Idayat Hassan, that the All Progressives Congress made 221 promises during the campaign.

Other ministers present were the Minister of Environment, Amina Mohammed, and the Minister of Budget and National Planning, Senator Udo Udoma.

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Speaking at an interactive session with the Senate Committee on Finance and Appropriation, Senator Udoma said that the federal government would cut all frivolous expenditure in the 2016 budget and overheads will be reduced by seven percent.

The Central Bank Governor, the Group Managing Director at the Nigeria National Petroleum Commission (NNPC) as well as the Ministers of Finance, were also at the forum to discuss the 2016 Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) with members of the senate committee.

The Minister of National Planning explained how the federal government arrived at the indices in the MTEF while the NNPC boss, who is also Minister of State for Petroleum, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, gave a breakdown of the oil and gas sector, including how much has been spent on petroleum subsidy in 2015.

In the Medium Term Expenditure Framework, the N6.077 trillion budget with a revenue target of N3.82 trillion, projects a deficit of N2.22 trillion and projects that recurrent expenditure would drop from 84 percent in the 2015 budget to 70 percent in 2016.

The Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun, who explained how the federal government plans to cut recurrent expenditure, said that in the proposed framework, capital expenditure of 16 percent in the 2015 budget was raised to 30 percent in 2016 but with dwindling oil prices, economic analysts have expressed concern about how government intends to fund the 2016 budget.

The Chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue, Babatunde Fowler, said that one of the strategies which the federal government intends to use is by blocking loopholes and opening up the tax base.

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The party stakeholders, who petitioned the PDP National Secretariat, accused the governor of trying to foist the current Secretary to the State Government, Udom Emmanuel, on the party as its governorship candidate in the 2015 general elections.

They also alleged that prominent members of the party such as former Governor Victor Attah, Don Etiebet and Senator Udo Udoma among others had been sidelined from party affairs.

The petition, which was signed by 60 prominent indigenes of the state, also accused the governor of using family members and loyalists to run the party.

Copies of the protest letter which were sent to President Goodluck Jonathan, the Tony Anenih-led Board of Trustees of the PDP and journalists, warned that the party might suffer a disastrous outing in the 2015 elections if steps were not taken to address the issue of factionalisation of the party by the governor.

They also accused the state governor of maintaining a stranglehold on the party, noting that the governor and his men relocated the secretariat of the PDP from its 149 Ikot Ekpene Road, Uyo address, to the residence of his younger brother, one Ibanga Akpabio.

The elders are also protesting the withdrawal of one Paul Ekpo from the cabinet and making him the state party chairman, describing Ekpo as a mere figure head.

They declared that the state PDP was being run by the governor’s brothers, Emem and Ibanga Akpabio, while others are Nsetip and Prince Akpabio and further accused the governor of making his younger brother, Ibanga, the party’s scribe while his Special Assistant on Youth Mobilisation, Emmanuel Ekpeyong, was made the State Youth Leader.

Meanwhile, the state Commissioner for Information and Communications, Aniekan Umanah, dismissed the petition, describing it as an old one, alleging that a desperate governorship aspirant was behind the petition as well as the agitation.

“There is nothing to it (petition), it is an old one. Just like our party chairman said yesterday, our party is intact. We held an extended meeting, which a number of these people attended.

“The party met and took a decision to zone the governorship position to Eket Senatorial District, which is one of the largest oil producing areas in the state.

“The area has not produced a governor for the state since creation; the party decided to zone the governorship to this area in the spirit of fairness and equity. The party never said it will not sell its form to anybody who is interested.

“At no time did the party ask anybody not to contest. At the time Governor Godswill Akpabio contested the primaries, 57 others from all over the state contested against him and he won,” Umanah said.

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