2016 BUDGET: we may not even Borrow as planned - Femi Adesina

By Festus Fifen

In the heels of the successive passage of the 2016 Budget of N6.06 Trillion by the National Assembly which is about N17 Billion less than the initial  N6.07 Trillion submitted to the National Assembly on 22nd December 2015 by President Muhammadu Buhari, presidential spokesman Mr. Femi Adesina has said that from the look of things if the reactions of the president is anything to go by, that Nigeria may not actually borrow the over N2Trillion deficit as at when the Budget was presented to the Nation Assembly over 3 months ago.

In a chat BEN television in an exclusive interview at the Aso Rock Presidential Villa Abuja, Mr. Adesina said he is optimistic that some of the steps taken by the president since he assumed office, especially in the Areas of recovery of looted funds, blockage in the revenue leakages of the Government and the strict compliance with the treasury single account TSA, the budget might just be void of borrowing.

In his words, " we know what the provisions are, we look forward to a budget that will be implemented which is the important thing, its a radical budget over 6 trillion Naira, the country was to borrow about N2 trillion but the president is saying we may end up not actually borrowing to fund this budget, I think its a very radical budget and its going to touch Nigerians positively"

Speaking on criticism by some section of the media which are not comfortable with President Buhari making Very strong Policy statements outside the shores of this country, the Presidential spokesman said the most important thing is that those statement are made in the right time

"My response to that is that does it matter wherever he makes these policy statement? Whatever anybody says anywhere in the world in this generation, reverberates round the world. There are terrorist attack in brussels is the whole world not feeling it? when it happened in paris didn't the whole world hear about it? When it happens in Nigeria in the north east, the world hears about it. "

"The world is a global village, it has long been established that it is a global village does it then matter where anybody says anything, it will reverberate round the world. Coupled with the fact that before we travel, we have what we call trip planning meeting; and embedded into the trip planning meeting is a time with the media; that we can depend on because it is planned and so during that trip the president engages international media, when he is home, he is very busy, its not easy to get that window, so that's why it seems he speaks more abroad. But its better to utilise any window he has to speak."

Mr. Adesina who also took time to touch the benefits of the various trips of Mr. President said it is in the overall interest of Nigeria as the president engages stakeholders on how to move Nigeria to the Next level.

" You seems to forget the agenda Mr president pursues when he travels, three things are key, one he talks about securing the country thereby partnering with those countries for intelligence gathering, and those who can give us armament he talks with them and also those who can give training support"

"secondly he talks about the Nigeria economy, how those countries can invest here, he unfolds the opportunities available in Nigeria, they reach agreements and they sometimes even sign bilateral agreements, and thirdly he talks about anti corruption, a good number of this countries, our monies have been starched away there, so he talks to them on how they can assist in getting money illegally starched abroad back to Nigeria. So there are lots of things he discusses abroad and I can tell you we see the yields, the yields are coming"

Commenting on the sincerity displayed as it pertains returning stolen funds by some of the countries the president is discussing with especially when these monies is a major  support to such economies. The former president of the Nigeria Guild of Editors said "if you don't try, you will never get it, don't forget that just last week the swiss authority still promised to return some of abacha' s loot, like the saying if you don't ask the answer is already no, if you don't ask those countries, you will never get those monies back, but our president is asking and we have the assurance that we will get it back."

Mr Adesina thereby used the medium to call on all Nigerians to support the present administration of President Buhari in its bid to rebuild a country that we will all be proud of, noting that no single human can bring about change if the people are not willing to support the change agenda.