The Presidential candidate of the National Conscience Party (NCP) in 2015, Mr. Martin Onovo, has described the N10.3 trillion 2020 national budget proposal as a budget of national devastation.
The budget was presented by President Muhammadu Buhari to the National Assembly on October 8, 2019.
Onovo, a chieftain of the Movement for Fundamental Change (MFC), who spoke to The NEXT EDITION on Tuesday in Lagos, warned that the budget, if passed, would increase the nation’s debt profile.
He said: “It is a budget of national devastation. If it is passed, it will increase national debt. It will also increase unemployment, poverty and crime. Only an unpatriotic political leadership can propose such a senseless budget with a deficit of over N2 trillion in our current national circumstances.”
Onovo stated that since 2015 that the current Buhari government came into power, they had “recklessly and unpatriotically continued to make deficit budgets consistently. They have consequently led Nigeria to the highest level of national debt ever.
“This government met total public debt at about N12.1trillion and has borrowed so much, recklessly and unpatriotically, that total public debt is now over N24 trillion.
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Similarly, the Buhari government met debt obligations cost at N0.94 trillion in 2015 and has driven it to N2.75 trillion which is about three times higher.
“The N2.75 trillion can be calculated by the addition of the N2.45 trillion debt servicing proposal to the N0.3 trillion, sinking fund proposal to determine total debt obligations cost. This government is obsessed with reckless and unpatriotic borrowing and has led the country, first into a debt trap, then deeper into the debt trap and now closer to a national debt crisis.”
He lamented that since 2015, Buhari’s government had spent almost N30 trillion, while it had not build any new refinery, new power station, or new significant infrastructure, stressing that Nigerians had been fed with false propaganda, massive corruption and rising debt.
Onovo urged Nigerians to call the Buhari government to account for about N30 trillion it had spent since 2015, maintaining, the N125 billion proposed for the National Assembly was wasteful and insensitive to the national predicament and mass poverty.
“The alternative that the Movement for Fundamental Change is proposing are: End to borrowing, cutting cost of governance, increased national productivity, sincere control of corruption and waste, and focusing on national unity and excellence against sectionalism and mediocrity.
“This 2020 budget proposal is unrealistic. The revenue projections are simply unfounded and wishful with about N5.5 trillion estimated revenue from non-oil sources. The revenue from oil is over-estimated in line with the profligacy and massive corruption that this government is known for.
“The increase in VAT rate from 5% to 7.5% will further drive transportation, energy, materials and production costs higher and impair productivity. Consequently, it will increase unemployment, inflation, poverty and crime,” he stated.
