Nigeria Running On Lottery -Utomi

Foremost economist and founder of Lagos Business School, Prof. PatUtomi has blamed the current economic recession in the country onplanlessness and lack foresight which a good national budget could havetaken care of easily.Speaking as a guest lecturer yesterday at Dr Emmanuel Egbogah BudgetRoundtable titled: Budget Processes In Nigeria: Challenges AndImplications For National Development, organised by the BusinessSchool, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, Utomi said that a good budgetnot only contains what the people want but envisages the implications offuture economic changes in the country.Our major problem is that we lack planning and if there is nodiscipline then budgeting is a waste of time. In beginning of a budgeting process it must be matched with wherethe people are going .But beyond revenue and expenditure budget has todo with discipline and execution, Utomi stated further.Lamenting the prevailing backwardness in the country, the renownedeconomist stated that the sad situation was basically thrown up by theevents of 1966 when a gang of renegades hijacked the leadership of thecountry and that the same characters have remained in power.Stating further that the powers of appropriation essentially lie inthe National Assembly, Utomi however faulted the implementation ofconstituency projects.Earlier in his keynote address, deputy chairman, House ofRepresentatives Committee on Appropriation, Hon.Chris Azubuogulisted factors that hinder the actualization of national budget. Thesehe stated included poor funding of budget, lopsided budgeting,deficit budget and high domestic debt profile which he said iscurrently in trillions of Naira.Other factors he further stated were absence of budget educationlack of budget engagement, among others.In his own contribution, a former Minister for National Planning,Dr.Olisa Ogbu pointed out that lack national consciousness wasresponsible for the poor implementation of national budget.Where our politics is wrong our economic is wrong. When you get veryclose to power, you see what power can do to budget either positivelyor negatively Ogbu stated.He called for enactment into law the nations National DevelopmentPlan to avoid itsto abandonment by successive administrations.In his welcome address, , the Vice-chancellor of the University, ProfJoseph Ahanekwu described the topic as apt and expressed that theideas and recommendations generated by the round-table if put to useby policy makers would address the challenges of budgeting in thecountry.The Director of the Universitys Business School, Professor A.U,Nonyelu stated that the school was committed to unraveling thatnations economic problems and providing solutions to them andcommended the guest speakers and the university management for thesupport the school was getting from them.
Click here to read full news..