AS President Goodluck Jonathan was busy presenting the 2012 budget proposals to the National Assembly last Tuesday, the thermal power station at Egbin, a Lagos outskirts, with an installed capacity to generate 1,320 megawatts of electricity, reportedly collapsed due to poor maintenance. Further explanations revealed that the hydro component of the power station, called the 'bi-minerasation plant,' which had not been regularly maintained over the years, caved in. Before the Egbin plant went down, the installation was said to contribute about 1,080 megawatts of power to the national grid. The woeful development is a major set back, for both the outgoing 2011 budget and one being proposed for 2012. The power sector has been a major concern to government and a special committee, chaired by the Vice President, Namadi Sambo, regularly meets to fashion ways out of the epileptic situation. A lot of funds had been committed to that sector.Unfortunately, on December 9, the federal government raised alarm that it could not fire a 1,000 megawatts-capacity National Independent Power Project (NIPP), from Sapele, Delta State, due to shortage of gas and alleged host community restiveness.Thus, the power sector, which is seen as the number one catalyst for economic transformation, is still beset with the same old challenges of dilapidated infrastructure and poor coordination of projects and gas supply.Regrettably, the proposed budget does not have too much to be expended on that sector. Just N161.42 billion is proposed for a sector that has so much to do, unless government summons the will to commence the planned privatisation, which has been sluggish. That is the only way to free government of continued investments that do not yield dividend.Even at that, there are so many loose ends that government must tie before finally divesting. One area where many people have expressed reservation is government's plan to expend a total of N921.91 billion on security. Citizens say the figures for combating insecurity are unduly high at a time when unemployment figures have exceeded tolerable limits.No doubt, the security challenges in the past one and a half years have become intimidating, especially with the introduction of terrorism as a form of protest. What began as a joke has snowballed into a major criminal offensive and government, probably, reasoned that throwing more funds at it could douse the flames.Buy some Nigerians argue that military hardware is not the most potent weapon to combat crimes arising from social dislocation and perennial failure on the part of government to adequately fund education and create employment opportunities.Agriculture and rural development is one area government has promised to raise the bar. President Jonathan has expressed opinion that agriculture is what the country needs to stabilize economically. But how far the proposed N78.98 billion will go to transform the sector is what remains to be seen.Government has promised to use import duties to discourage frivolous consumptions, while encouraging local production. Rice and wheat would attract higher tariffs and fertilizer may not get as much subsidy as it was in the past, so as to discourage politicians who usually took undue advantage of the process.A lot depends on how much states would devote to agriculture and how rigorous they pursue their programmes. No matter how much the federal government allocates, it is the states that have constituencies to closely monitor.In 2012, government plans to re-introduce toll plazas and other income-yielding ventures to raise money for roads maintenance. A budget of N180.8 billion for the works ministry looks like a joke, considering the huge deficit government had amassed in that sector over the years.For sometime now, government has toyed with joint ventures with private investors to construct roads. The Lagos-Ibadan expressway is an example of how feasible such partnership could be having been on a very slow side since its concessioning. The road sector can also do with a lot of transparency because road contracts are some of the most controversial procurement ventures.THE relatively robust budgets for health and education will pale into insignificance when recurrent overheads and salaries are drawn. That is why a lot of budget analysts are not excited about prospects of spending more than 70 percent of the budget to service recurrent expenditure. The bureaucracy is huge and that is an old story. Government has commenced the process of rationalisation in the public service, but the main challenge is the political system that prefers patronage to capital expenditure.The political system is too expensive to run and the political class does not want to admit reforms that could cut recurrent expenses by 50 percent.The bicameral legislature is a heavy burden on the economy and the federal system does not seem to encourage any ingenuity on the part of federating units that are naturally gifted to get creative with internally generated revenue. A situation where the political class supplies a long list of highly paid ministers, ambassadors and other political appointees to the system leaves very little resources for job creation and capital development.As outlined in the budget, government's priorities are in the area of economic growth and job creation. Yet, the Youth ministry did not feature among those with huge envelopes; even the newly created Communications Technology ministry is not highly favoured, with just N18.31 billion; a sum that would hardly cover cost for research and trainings.So, where would the youths get the much-talked-about jobs, apart from the N50 billion seed money earmarked for the national job creation scheme in the 2011'President Jonathan recently inaugurated a committee to do a review of outstanding constitutional issues, which have been identified, but are not resolved. This political project will require some spending and it is hoped that that is captured in the budget. The exercise may not be completed, but a significant part of it should commence, so that by 2015, there will be a clear sign about how the country should go.According to Jonathan, 'the 2012 budget, as our collaborative effort, has taken the welfare of Nigerians as top priority.' How has that been demonstrated, by keeping mum on the vexed issue of fuel subsidy removal'The NASS had opened debate on the proposals and the signs seem to be that they were not carried along in the drafting of the estimates. If the legislature is not carried along, who then is carried along, in a process that requires utmost inclusivity'It is hoped that before passage, the NASS would knock the budget back to shape, to add useful ingredients that will make it palatable. Not the usual padding in their own favour.Unfortunately, another December has come and Egbin's breakdown epitomises failure of government and dashing of promises that Budget 2011 would record a significant lift for electricity users.
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