A Professor of Communications, Baze University, Prof. Abiodun Adeniyi, has queried the recently approved 2024 budget by President Bola Tinubu, as part of the budget will be funded through borrowing.
The political analyst criticized the budget, asking if the country will keep borrowing money that will be lost through corruption?
Speaking during an interview on Arise Television on Tuesday, Prof. Adenitis said, “Maybe we should commend the government overall for sticking to the January to December cycle that started in the former Senate President’s Ahmad Lawan’s administration, and they were faced with a challenged that it might not continue, so it’s a good development that there is a continuation.
“Secondly, budgets, as the case could be, are supposed to be in installments, in the overall implementation of the national development plan but it is first regrettable that there’s a reoccurrence of budget every year and there’s a loud silence on what the overall national development plan is, as the case could be.
“Be that as it may, it’s not a bad thing if we’re making projections on how we are going to expend funds or income that we are going to make in the next twelve months. But beyond the expenditure, beyond the capital outlay, the recurrent outlay, that the president is concerned about, which are part of the sub-fillings that are embedded in the… philosophy, it’s also the fear that some of our practices are going to continue and what are these practices? The fact that there’s conscious effort to block leakages, there’s no commitment to how we are going block leakages, wastages, how we are going to end profligacy, remembering that part of the budget is going to be funded through borrowing. I mean, are we going to be borrowing money that will be lost through corruption or the absence of transparency or the lack of accountability?
“I would have imagined that the President would be more definitive on the measures that will be put in place to check leakages.”
