President Muhammadu Buhari presented a N20.5 trillion 2023 budget to the joint National Assembly legislature last week.
Omoyele Sowore, the presidential candidate of the African Action Congress (AAC) has described the 2023 budget presented by President Muhammadu Buhari as illegal.
President Muhammadu Buhari presented a N20.5 trillion 2023 budget to the joint National Assembly legislature last week.
Meanwhile, Sowore, while reacting to the deficit in the budget during his speech at the national conference organised by the Institute of Chartered Accountant of Nigeria (ICAN) on Wednesday, explained how the 2023 budget breached the constitutional provisions and other enactments.
The human rights advocate described the Appropriation Bill as unsustainable, claiming that the deficit has surpassed the 3% required by the Fiscal Responsibility Act 2007.
He said, "I had made a promise that I would not talk about any other candidate but myself. So I want to thank the leadership of ICAN for demonstrating better judgement than the Nigerian Bar Association who did not invite the rest of us. But having said that, I also want to congratulate those of you who made a bet today that one candidate will not show up. Congratulations, you won. And the candidate that did not show up is supposed to be an accounting guru from Chicago state university but he refused to show up at the most important accounting event in Nigeria today.”
"The country Nigeria and the future of Nigeria cannot continue to live or expect unsustainable candidates in 2023. You guys are aware that the president of Nigeria just presented a budget a few days ago. I wasn't an accountant. But I went into that budget and looked at it legally. I discovered that it is an illegal budget. The budget violated Section 12(1) of the Nigerian Constitution. By way of the Fiscal Responsibility Act 2007 which says explicitly that the deficit to GDP ratio in the national budget must not be more than 3%. We are now at 5%. That is unsustainable," he added.
@MBuhari’s 2023 budget is fiscally irresponsible and illegal. At @ICAN_NGR annual convention in Abuja! #WeCantContinueLikeThis pic.twitter.com/Dh546SUh2S
— Omoyele Sowore (@YeleSowore) October 12, 2022
The Gani Fawehinmi Memorial Organisation (Gafamorg) had also said that the proposed budget deficit of N10.78 trillion in the 2023 budget estimate is not applicable and implementable. The organisation begged government officials to cut down its bloated personnel cost. Gafamorg said that with a N20.51 trillion budget based on a mono economy system of oil "practiced or adopted" by Nigeria with a projected revenue at N16.87 trillion and N10.78 trillion, it clearly shows that Nigeria is running on deficit.