Amosun presents N210.354bn budget

Ogun State Governor, Senator Ibikunle Amosun, on Tuesday presented a budget of N210.354bn for the fiscal year 2015 before the Ogun State House of Assembly.

The 2015 budget was N326m above the 2014 approved budget of N210.28bn.

The budget presentation, however, had a dramatic slant as 13 members who were in the opposition parties, Peoples Democratic Party, and Social Democratic Party, shunned the post-budget presentation photograph session, held outside the chamber.

Only the other 13 loyal to the governor followed him after he had presented the budget to the open space, in front of the hallow chamber for the photograph session.

Amosun who tagged the budget “Budget of Continuity,” noted that budget would be funded mainly from the Internally Generated Revenue, which currently fluctuates between N5bn and N6bn monthly.

He said, “The rationale for this is that the macro-economic outlook driven by the global oil prices suggests a contraction in the national economy.  I have always maintained that Ogun State is not immune to the wider economy.  However I am confident that we will be able to maintain our budget size by innovatively growing our Internally Generated Revenue.”

While he thanked the legislative and judicial arms for their support and cooperation, he said the modest achievements recorded in the past three and half years would not have been possible without them.

Amosun reiterated his administration’s commitment to its five cardinal programmes, and this it had done within the limited resources, given the dwindling fortunes from the Federation Account.

“We have strived within the available resources to lay a solid foundation for our future development. We have worked hard to address the huge infrastructure deficit.  We have also improved the security situation in the state and have restored our people’s confidence in government.

“Indeed, we have succeeded in creating a good and befitting image for Ogun State Government and most importantly the good people of Ogun State.

“International, multi-lateral and national agencies who had hitherto written Ogun State off now find in us reliable partners and are willing to assist in our developmental efforts.
We, therefore, need to sustain this tempo and continue to build on this solid foundation.”

The presentation of the bill was punctuated by one of the supporters who slumped at the gallery of the Assembly but was quickly revived by the people at gallery.

However, mixed reactions had greeted the budget.

A lawmaker in the state assembly, Mr. Remmy Hassan, described the budget as unrealistic and unrealisable.

He said, “It is more of an attempt to  build castles in the air. If we  are saying that  2014 budget has 68 per cent in terms of performance in November,  which is still conservative because we have not done our necessary oversight in the 2014 budget.

“Why are we still  holding on to the same figure for the past three years?

We have never achieved anything in the region of two- third of whatever is the size of the budget.

” If government says it is generating N6bn per month which is still debatable, a large chunk of what the government relies on are not sustainable,  they are like a spur of the moment thing, they cannot be a continuous sustainable thing. N100bn IGR translates to about N8bn per month that makes it more and more unrealistic.”

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