Friday, 29th March 2024
To guardian.ng
Search

2016 budget implementable – Al-Makura

By Mohammed Abubakar, Abuja
22 December 2015   |   3:03 pm
Nasarawa'll key into President's vision   NASARAWA State Governor, Umoru Tanko Al-Makura, has expressed optimism that the 2016 budget presented to the National Assembly on Tuesday by President Muhammadu Buhari will ignite the hope of early economic revival of the country. He said with the decision of the President to take the country back to the pre-independence…
Al-Makura, Governor Of Nasarawa. PHOTO: babsol

Al-Makura, Governor of Nasarawa

  • Nasarawa’ll key into President’s vision

 

NASARAWA State Governor, Umoru Tanko Al-Makura, has expressed optimism that the 2016 budget presented to the National Assembly on Tuesday by President Muhammadu Buhari will ignite the hope of early economic revival of the country.

He said with the decision of the President to take the country back to the pre-independence days, Nigeria would once again find direction in the management of its economy.

Speaking with State House correspondents shortly after the presentation of the 2016 Appropriation Bill to the joint sitting of the National Assembly by the President, Al-Makura noted that his state would key into the President’s economic vision to tap from its proximity to the federal capital, as the seat of power.

Though, he admitted that he had yet to read the nitty-gritty of the budget regarding the allocations, the governor, however, said ” from the presentation you can see that there is direction in this country, there is hope in this country.

!”When people are crying about dwindling situation and lack of resources in the country, you find that the budget has gone far beyond the expectation of a lot of people. This is indicating the fact that we have a purposeful government, we have a responsible government, a government that will ensure that it plugs all the holes creating economic problem in the country.

“A government which will look into the actual problems of the people and solve them with all the accountability, sense of responsibility and prudence. And this indicates to me that next year will be a year that will turn around a lot of things that we had thought were going haywire, given the direction, purposefulness and forthrightness of Mr. President.”

Asked if the 2016 budget was implementable, he said, “God willing, we will implement this budget because you have to be optimistic. All the potentials are there for effective utilization of resources.  But what has been the problem in the past was misapplication and outright maladministration with regard to resources accruing to the country.

“Given the position and focus of Mr. President and his sense of accountability, he knows exactly what he is doing or saying when he makes a budget of that magnitude. It only goes to prove that all the corruption, all the stealing, all the squandering of riches that has been the lot of this country will be a thing of the past.

“I believe that even if the budget is more than that, we will be able to accomplish it hence we are able to detect and identify areas where people in government are stealing blindly, we will be able to provide for the people of this country all the necessary facilities and utilities that they deserve given the potentials for the resources that we have.

“Mr. President’s attention is much more on revenue generation in other sources. So, forget about the issue of the benchmark of the naira, the falling prices of oil in the international market, there are many other sources that this country can depend on to make us survive. We didn’t have oil in the 1960s, we had hide and skin, cocoa, groundnut and so many things.

“We are going back to the basis, to ensure that every available opportunity for revenue generation will be tapped. What is more is that the President is really serious and concerned about revolutionizing the petroleum industry.  You can see it from the news that the Kaduna will start refining oil this week. So with this kind of prospect and signs of good hope, I believe whatever amount in the budget will be implementable and the people will get the desired dividends.

“For us in Nasarawa State, we have two, three getaways to ensure effective revenue generation. One is the solid minerals. We are not just going to do the business as usual of just getting investors to come and prospect. We will also participate fully in the prospecting  and exploitation of these minerals and give a lot of tax holidays and incentives so that we can have a lot of investors who will come and partake. Secondly, Nasarawa State has a large agricultural potential waiting to be tapped.”

 

0 Comments