2016 Budgetary Plans: No Serious Commitment To Diversification Of The Economy As Earlier Promised By President Buhari.

There have been a lot of rhetorics about “diversification ” of the economy to the point that people were expecting that the 2016 budget would pay serious attention to non-oil sources especially the solid mineral sector. Alas, only a paltry N9b was voted for solid mineral, just a quarter of the N40b that has been earmarked to search for oil in the Lake chad at a time when IMF has projected that oil may fall to $20 a barrel as against our $38 projection. Peradventure oil is found in the North East, who is going to invest in the place given the security situation in that area? This is at best a sentimental voyage!
The President was right when he said that there is the need to secure Nigeria and then manage it. But we also need to manage what resources we devote to securing the country. We have N294.5 billion budgeted for the Ministry of Defence,the Ministry of Interior has a budget of N145.2b, Nigerian Police Formation and Command has N283.09 billion.
There is another N10b voted for Operation Lafiya Dole. If the four items are added with the N57.7 billion voted for the office of the National Security Adviser we have N799.04 billion devoted to security out of a N6.08 trillion!