Senators accuse Okonjo-Iweala of imposing W’Bank/IMF policies

The debate on the 2014 Appropriation bill entered the  second day in the Senate on Wednesday with some Peoples Democratic Party and All Progressives Congress senators describing the document as anti-people.

 They chided the  Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, for the way the bill was packaged and therefore called for its review.

But others  like Senators Odion Ugbesia and Ayogu Eze argued  that  the bill  was  merely only a working document, which could be subjected to alterations in the interest of the masses.

 Among the  senators  that picked holes in  the Appropriation bill were Smart  Adeyemi, Abdul Ningi, Olusola Adeyeye,  Ganiyu Solomon, Kabiru Gaya and  Gbenga Ashafa.

Adeyemi and Ningi,who lamented the high recurrent expenditure as contained in the budget   and the continued depletion of the foreign reserves,    accused Okonjo-Iweala of imposing economic policies of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank on Nigeria.

Adeyemi said, “Okonjo-Iweala should be told in clear terms that the economic policies of the IMF and the World Bank  cannot work in Nigeria.

“The policy must be reviewed. The IMF and World Bank policies cannot work 100 per cent in Nigeria. We don’t need IMF recommendations.

“What we need is what will impact on the lives of Nigerians. We need to work on budget management  and  concentrate on key areas such as power and other sectors of the economy.”

 When he took the floor, Ningi also  cautioned against Nigeria depending on the policies of the IMF, the World Bank and other advanced economies of the world.

He  suggested that Nigeria should evolve  an  indigenous economic policy  that would impact positively on the economy and the citizenry.

The senator said there was the need for the nation’s economic manager to note that while western economies were collapsing,   the ‘homegrown economies of India and China were  waxing stronger.

In his contribution,   Adeyeye accused the Finance minister of confusing Nigerians with ‘foreign economic jargon’, which he called ‘Okonjonomics’.

He said   that ‘Okonjonomics’ had no positive impact on “our domestic economy and lives of Nigerians.”

Solomon also advised the Executive arm of government to change any of its policies  that had not been yielding results.

He said, “We should increase the ratio of capital expenditure to recurrent”.

Gaya and Ashafa lamented that the 76 per cent recurrent expenditure and 24 per cent capital components of the budget were  lopsided, and therefore far from meeting the needs and aspirations of the people.

Gaya noted that the distribution of the allocations in the budget was worrisome and unacceptable.

He said, “The Federal Government budget is the reverse of the Rivers State budget. I wish the budget will be 74 per cent capital and 26 per cent recurrent.”

Ashafa pointed out that capital expenditure in the last three years had witnessed downward swing.

While presenting a statistical analysis of capital votes in the last three years, Ashafa said, “the capital allocation for 2012 was 31per cent; in 2013, it came down to 23.7 per cent while in 2014, it is 23.4 per cent.”

He observed that the 2014 budget estimates negated the requirements of the Fiscal Responsibility Act.

The lawmaker  described the document as an illegality  and called for its return to the Executive.

PUNCH