BUDGET presentation by the President to the joint session of the National Assembly is now an uninspiring annual ritual. The difference often is in the attendant oratory by the presenter. There had been 'Budget of Hope,' 'Budget of Consolidation,' 'Budget of Recovery' and such other flowery coinage that practically translated to nothing in the end.President Goodluck Jonathan did one ' his first as an elected president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria ' last Tuesday. He described the 2012 National Budget as 'our walk to Economic Freedom' because, the mysterious subsidy on domestic consumption of fuel paid by the Federal Government and which allegedly climbs to trillions of Naira annually, is on its way out of the expenditure column of the budget.The 2011 budget was predicated on a crude price of $75 per barrel at a projected output of 2.3 million barrels per day. But the year is running full course on an average of about $100 per barrel, which is $25 or 25 per cent higher than the projection.Also, there have not been reported cutbacks in output due mainly to the newfound tranquility in the hitherto volatile Niger Delta region where petroleum is produced in the country. This means the budget burst expectations in terms of income.The Federal Government has said that a whopping 72 per cent of the N4.75 trillion budget for 2012 will go into recurrent expenditure, which comprises mainly the cost of running government. As always, the projected income to finance this huge outlay will flow from crude oil whose price has been deliberately marked down to $70 per barrel from $75 that was used to compute the 2011 budget and on the robust hope that 2.48 million barrels of the stuff will be extracted daily from the famished soil of the Niger Delta by the IOC and the NNPC Joint Venture.Both the growth and inflation rates are put at single digits of 7.2 and 9.5 per cent for 2012. Book makers may argue that such optimism is misplaced and baseless for the simple reason that a budget, where 72 per cent of the expected inflows will go into payment of salaries and sundry matters, does not appear a veritable fiscal instrument to shore up production on one hand and hold down inflation on the other.Government remains the greatest patron of the economy and whatever it does with its finances determines the direction in the private sector and even in the domestic front where a man is required to plan accordingly for his wife and children. And so, expectations that the 2012 budget will engender conducive operating environment through the provision of infrastructure for enterprise to thrive should be expressed with caution.EVEN so, the real issue in public spending in Nigeria is not so much about the appropriateness of the plan, as it is about implementation and accountability. Somebody, somewhere, should be able to hold government down to its previous promises before the start of a fresh ritual of budget presentation. For instance, regarding the Benin-Shagamu Federal Highway, some people, especially the national legislators from the Southwest and South-South should have the courage to ask questions.They should tell Mr. President to explain what has happened to all the monies appropriated for the restoration of that road since the time of Chief Tony Anenih as works minister through Mrs. Diezani Allison-Madueke, who put up a good public show of weeping like a baby on national television network on account of the badness of the road, to the incumbent minister. That way, the ordinary citizen will have cause to hope that the trillions he reads and hears about as government budget will translate into some value in the end.But as it is today, living in Nigeria is based more on faith than facts. The macro and micro economic parameters supplied by government do not add up to any scientific guide because they are usually projected from fraudulent foundations. Consequently, there is a pervading sense of despondency occasioned by years of failed political leadership. And left without public direction, the people have resorted to self-help.This, more than any factor, explains the persistent chaos in almost every department of the national life: everybody to himself in the absence of a clear public order. Nobody believes in government because government, over the years, has become synonymous with failure, deceit, fraud and all that is vice.Hence, the concern about the 2012 Budget is not in what it proclaims because Nigerians are really tired of empty proclamations. The prayer is for President Jonathan to show an uncommon courage and convert the budget to a redemptive fiscal instrument that will restore the people's faith in government. Anything less will amount to moving in circles.BACK to the oil subsidy palaver! Government argues that the money, which could have been used to build good roads and bridges, schools, hospitals, provide steady electricity and security is spent to nourish the stupid monster called fuel subsidy. If this wastepipe is blocked for good, as being currently worked out, the ordinary citizen shall begin to experience government again!For now, the scenario in Nigeria does not obtain elsewhere in the world. Here, every man (and woman, too) is a local government unto himself. He provides his own road, water scheme, health-care system, education for his children, electricity and security following the complete abdication of government on the excuse of payment of fuel subsidy.Thus, it is a nice deal if the mere removal of the fabled subsidy will mean an end to this burden. The caveat though is that this argument of appropriating monies accruing from removal of petroleum subsidy for the development of infrastructure is stale. It has been over-canvassed and sounds uninteresting.When Abacha and later Obasanjo wanted Nigerians to pay higher for fuel so that government could earn more money, both men said the resultant benefits would be spent to make life better for Nigerians. In the end, however, the surplus revenue never translated into better social and physical infrastructure; instead, it added more heads to the hydra called corruption because there was more money on the table of government to spend.Currently, without saying how wisely or even foolishly the excess money was utilised, President Jonathan, as if up for another election after the April presidential polls, is meeting so-called stakeholders in a far more vigorous campaign, to garner support for the removal of fuel subsidy.There is ongoing official campaign to make the continued payment of the so-called subsidy look like the worst crime government could commit against itself. Even the Comrade Governor, Adams Oshiomhole, who, as president of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) battled former President Obasanjo to a standstill on this same matter, has turned full circle. He has refused to break rank with his fellow governors, who have said in one accord that the subsidy must go. Perhaps, for the first time, the comrade is not standing with the man and woman on the street, as he did about a decade ago, to condemn the removal of subsidy.Subsidy removal is an Orwellian concept where pain translates into gain and subtraction of figures at one end amounts to addition at the other. While the removal spells hard times for the people, it means better revenue package for government, including the Edo State Government. This explains why Oshiomhole is not talking tough, as he should.In a sense, it is very good that this matter is being settled decisively this time around. It has been a recurring sour point in national planning since petroleum took a prime place in government's revenue in Nigeria. Like Lucifer, subsidy is blamed for everything that goes wrong in the country. It has been responsible for failure of successive governments to provide basic physical and social infrastructure needed for normal living.The problem, nonetheless, is that the NLC is warming up for a showdown even as the National Assembly is still scheming to secure a legislative consensus on the matter. These are telltales that the New Year may open on a note of industrial turbulence.
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