ACT 1, SCENE 1
On December 22, 2015, President Muhammadu Buhari laid the much awaited 2016 Appropriation Bill before a joint session of the National Assembly. The record N6.07 trillion budget, the first by the Buhari administration, was highly anticipated with millions of Nigerians hoping that it would provide the elixir to the floundering economy.
On December 22, 2015, President Muhammadu Buhari laid the much awaited 2016 Appropriation Bill before a joint session of the National Assembly. The record N6.07 trillion budget, the first by the Buhari administration, was highly anticipated with millions of Nigerians hoping that it would provide the elixir to the floundering economy.
Predicated on an oil benchmark of $38
per barrel, oil production of 2.2 million barrels of crude oil per day,
and exchange rate of N197 to the dollar, the budget included revenue
estimates of 3.86 trillion and a deficit of 2.22 trillion which the
executive arm of government proposed would be funded by a combination of
domestic and foreign borrowings of N1.84 trillion.
Hinging the budget on increased spending
on critical infrastructure projects, the executive increased the
capital expenditure portion of the budget from N557 billion in the 2015
budget to N1.8 trillion in the 2016 budget. Effectively, for the first
time in years, capital expenditure was to represent 30 per cent of the
total budget.
But despite the emphasis on
infrastructure, one project that was never included by the executive was
the Calabar-Lagos railway project.
ACT 1, SCENE 2
Following Buhari’s
Following Buhari’s
