Madam President’s Budget – By Funke Egbemode
Fellow Nigerians, these past years of our national life have been tedious.
The journey has been long and arduous. Yet, all we have done is blame everybody and everything but ourselves and how we do things. We have consistently done the same thing over and again even when we got no desired results. Our desire for change has been built on nothing that we actually desire. We have refused to accept that doing the same things and expecting new or different results is a major symptom of a deep-seated national malady.
But I am here, now, your brand new Madam President. I’m here to effect the ‘Enough is Enough’ that we have all been chanting all these years. Yes, as your President, even I am tired, of the kobo-kobo budgeting where we appropriate pennies for 100 sectors instead of focused budgeting on specific areas of our national needs. That is why year 2025 budget will be different and that is how it will be every year until the end of my tenure.
Each year’s budget shall from hereon have a specific sectoral focus. We shall no more budget for budget’s sake. Today, ends the era of budgeting for everything and achieving little or nothing. There shall no longer be ceremonial budget rituals that achieve nothing but only prompt payment of salaries of federal civil servants and little else. We will present a budget that seeks to achieve something that the people can see and feel. If the National Assembly is going to keep Madam President standing for one hour, it cannot be for nothing.
Of course, this new way is unconventional, and the Professors of Economics will kick. They will postulate and draw us graphs and charts of how it should be done. They will tell us how we will fail. They will regale us with theories of budgeting and international best practices and good governance. They will have their day but will we follow them? No, we will not. Following their statistics, pie-charts and colourful graphs is how we got here. No, Madam President will try something new. Less English, more action. Less theory, more practical. What do we stand to lose? The percentages and ratio and dogon turenci of those who have attended big schools have not taken us anywhere. Nigerians are hungry. Nigerians are unemployed. Nigerian nurses don’t want to work in Nigeria’s hospitals. Nigerian doctors have deserted Nigerian hospitals. Nigerian companies have left Nigeria. Even Nigerian farmers are leaving the farms in droves. And that is where we are starting, with Agriculture and Agri-business.
What has Nigeria done with its infinitely fertile 923,7770 square kilometers of land? And that almost a million square kilometers land size, fellow Nigerians, is the size of three states in America: California, Nevada and Utah.
California grows and exports almond and it raked in $4.6billion in foreign sales alone in 2021, four years ago. Despite Nevada’s arid climate, it grows hay and potatoes, and five years ago, the state made $787.8 million from ranching and farming. And Utah? Utah farmers raise pigs, beef and dairy cows and chickens. In 2022 alone, Utah generated $2.8 billion in agricultural cash receipts.
I have cited a few figures to show that even in arid zones, there’s wealth in agriculture. So, why is Nigeria not growing potatoes and making billions from raising pigs and rearing cattle? If we can’t grow almond, what is wrong with our cashew? Just a little more focus and we can rake in billions of naira from our God-given endowment instead of punctuating every budget speech with borrowing, deficit and debts servicing.
We have thus christened the 2025 budget the Budget of Disruption with Focus on Agriculture. The biggest chunk of this year’s budget will go into creating State Farms and six ranches. The state governments will be encouraged to establish farms across the states. There will be legislation to ensure all states of the federation comply. Each state will be expected to choose which crop it wants to be known for. For instance, Ogun State can choose cassava and flood the market with lafun, gaari, fufu and everything derivable from cassava. Osun can do potatoes while Cross River concentrates on yam and fishery. Enugu can also do yam and cashew. Beans, vegetables, onions can be grown in large quantities for consumption and then export from the northern states.
Of course, the states will cooperate. Our government has taken judicious notice of the speed and alacrity with which states proceeded to conduct local government elections the moment they discovered the release of LG funds are now tied to constitutionally-constituted local government councils. We shall toe a similar line by attaching release of monthly allocation to proof of existence of State Farms.
Let us now close our eyes, all of us, and for a minute, imagine Sokoto State planting only onions and flooding the markets. Imagine Jigawa having pyramids of sesame seeds. Borno as the state of beans (all sizes of white and brown beans). Imagine the tonnes of cassava Ogun can turn out in a year and the economic import of endless hectares of corns from Ondo and Osun. Why will we not export palm oil if 10 states including Ondo, Edo and Delta concentrate on palm trees? How will Nigeria not be able to bring down the cost of poultry feed if we have more corn than we need for ‘Ogi’ and ‘Akamu’? How much tomatoes can we consume if five states of the federation plant it round the year? If the supply of everything exceeds demand, will price go down or not?
Now, open your eyes, fellow Nigerians, and answer this question. Is this simple solution rocket science, really? Is it true that we know what to do but simply refuse to do it?
Ask yourself, what kind of country has the body of water Nigeria is blessed with but imports fish, Titus, mackerel, stockfish, tilapia?
Why are we allergic to doing things that will make our lives better and easier? Why do we run a system that provides forex that funds foreign universities that are already rich but finds it difficult to buy fish eggs, nurture fingerlings and produce fish, good fish? Why do we have Directors of Fishery in Ministries of Agriculture from Abuja to Uyo, but import foolish fish like fools?
Nigeria has 850km of coastline. She has annual rainfall of 3,500mm. River Niger flows 1,300 km across the country. Benue River is 1,440 km long. Our surface water is estimated at 215 billion m3. Yet, we import fish and complain that fish is expensive. Do you see the prospects, potentials and possibilities that we have ignored for decades?
Meanwhile, before you jump into conclusion and flood the airwaves with high-sounding and self-righteous statistics of how this can’t work, let it be known that though a chunk of this year’s N49.7 trillion will go to agriculture, other sectors will not be neglected. However, priority will be given to sectors whose deliverables can and are linked to agriculture. For instance, the huge budget for Defence will be devoted in 2025 to providing security for farms and farmers. We cannot pretend to be doing well when farmers remain vulnerable and politicians go about with security details. The health budget must pay more attention to equipping rural health centres. Ministry of Works’ budget must focus on rural roads to facilitate easy movement of farm produce. The education budget must earmark more funds for training and research that are agriculture-centered.
Of course, all these sound unusual but ask yourself, how far has the usual taken us? Over the years, we have appropriated for everything with nothing tangible or impressive to show in any sector. We have appropriated for tourism peanuts that can’t even encourage those in hospitality business to sustain their businesses. If what we have appropriated for the health sector was fit and adequate, why do we have so many states hospitals without MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) machine? Madam President has been reliably briefed that the absence of MRI machines in our hospitals account for a huge percentage of misdiagnosis and avoidable deaths. When we eventually decide to focus the budget on the health sector, the focus will be total. Thus far, Nigeria has not done well at all and Madam President is here to fix things.
I am not promising that this will be easy. We will be pulling teeth, right? I also don’t expect claps and cheer. But I’m prepared and determined to do things differently so that we can get a different result at the end of this fiscal year. Fortunately, you cannot sue me. I have immunity.
This is not a year of buying new pots and pans for the Presidential kitchen. We shall use the cutlery and crockery of 2024 like normal people. Fraudulent budgets for dictionaries and laptops every year will attract the attention of DSS and EFCC. Above all, those who copy-and-paste previous years’ budgets will be seen and treated as enemies of the state.
Long shall the Federal Republic of Nigeria live!
Email: egbemode3@gmail.com
