How NASS passed N99.344trn budget in eight years of Buhari administration

The National Assembly passed a total sum of N99.344 trillion substantive budget estimate in the eight years of the administration of former President Muhammadu Buhari – 2015 to 2023 – for the Federal Government controlled by the All Progressives Congress (APC), National Daily investigation reveals. The figure represents substantive budget estimates, that is, excluding supplementary budgets.

Former President Muhammadu Buhari presenting an annual budget before the National Assembly

2015
However, former President Buhari inherited 2015 budget of N4.5 trillion budget passed by the National Assembly from the administration of his predecessor, former President Goodluck Jonathan, of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). While the budget was passed towards the general elections in the Jonathan administration, it was not implemented and handed over to the Buhari administration ‘untouched’ for implementation.
The inherited 2015 budget had a crude oil benchmark of $53 per barrel, and exchange rate of N199 per $1.

Budget presentation by former President Muhammadu Buhari

2016
The first substantive Appropriation Bill of former President Buhari passed by the National Assembly in 2016 was the sum of N6.06 trillion, though the President had presented a budget estimate of N6.07 trillion to the National Assembly.
The budget had recurrent expenditure of N2.6 trillion and capital expenditure of N1.5 trillion with fiscal deficit of N2.2 trillion.

Former President Muhammadu Buhari taking a bow after budget presentation

2017
Subsequently, the National Assembly in 2017, passed the sum of N7. 441 trillion for the annual budget. The President had proposed N7. 298 trillion Appropriation.
In the budget, National Assembly members increased budgetary allocation to the federal legislature from N115 billion to N125 billion.

The budget had a crude oil benchmark price of USD44.50 per barrel, crude oil production of 2.2 mbpd, with an exchange rate of N305 per dollar.
Appropriating for recurrent expenditure was N2.99 trillion, while capital expenditure was N2.18 trillion, allocation for debt service was N1.84 trillion and Statutory Transfers N434 billion.

2018
In 2018, the National Assembly passed a total sum of N9.120 trillion for the fiscal year. The legislators increased the budget with N508 billion from the initial proposal of N8.612 trillion presented by the President.
The budget contained oil benchmark price of $51 per barrel; recurrent expenditure of 3.512 trillion; capital expenditure of 2.873 trillion; allocation for debt servicing was N2.203 trillion; and statutory transfers of N530.421 billion.

Former Senate President Ahmad Lawan, Rt. Hon. Femi Gbajabimila chatting with former President Muhammadu Buhari after budget presentation

2019
The National Assembly passed a sum of N8.916 trillion budget for the 2019 fiscal year. The President had proposed the sum of N8.826 trillion. The federal lawmakers increased the President’s budgetary proposal with N90 billion.

The budget contained oil benchmark of $60 per barrel, exchange rate of N305/$; recurrent expenditure of N4.055 trillion, capital expenditure of N2.094 trillion, statutory transfers of N502 billion and fiscal deficit of N1.908 trillion (1.37%); including daily crude oil production of 2.3mpd.

Former President of the Senate Ahmad Lawan and former House Speaker, Rt. Hon Femi Gbajabiamila, at a Joint Session of the Ninth National Assembly

The N2.094 trillion capital expenditure was allocated as follows: the Federal Ministry of Power, Works and Housing had the highest votes of N394. 906 billion; the Ministry of Transportation had N179. 384; the Ministry of Defence got N159. 125 billion; the Ministry of Agriculture got N107. 218 billion; Ministry of Water Resources Minister N92. 178 billion, beside others.

2020
The two Chambers of the National Assembly in 202o passed a total sum of N10.59 trillion budget for the fiscal year. The lawmakers increased the budget with N263.946 billion beyond the N10.330 trillion proposed by the President in the Appropriation Bill.

Highlights of the budget include N4.84 trillion allocation for recurrent expenditure, capital expenditure had allocation of N2.46 trillion, allocation for statutory transfers was N560. 4 billion; debt servicing had N2.72 trillion allocation and the fiscal deficit was N2.28 trillion.

The highest budget allocation went to the Ministry of Defence which received recurrent expenditure of N784, 589 billion, and capital expenditure N116.181 billion; Ministry of Education trailed with recurrent expenditure allocation of N490.303 billion and capital expenditure of N84.728 billion; while the Ministry of Works and Housing received the highest capital expenditure allocation of N315, 563 billion, and recurrent expenditure of N27.983 billion .

The 2020 budget also contained crude oil production projection of 2.18 mbpd and oil price benchmark of $57, exchange rate of N305/USD, the GDP growth rate projection of 2.93 per cent and inflation rate of 10.81 per cent.

2021
The National Assembly in 2021 passed a budget of N13.588 trillion for the fiscal year. The President had proposed a total sum of N13.082 trillion but the federal lawmakers increased the budget estimate with the sum of N505 billion.
While the legislators held on to $40 per barrel crude oil price benchmark, they advised the President to send a supplementary budget as the price of crude oil was rising in the international market between $47 50 per barrel.
Meanwhile, key elements of the 2021 budget included: allocation for recurrent expenditure at N5.641 trillion, capital expenditure of N4.125 trillion, statutory transfers at N496.528 billion, allocation for debt servicing was N3.324 trillion, then projected GDP growth rate was 3.00%.

Former President Muhammadu Buhari

Former President Buhari had themed the 2021 fiscal document – The Budget of Economic Recovery and Resilience – with the goal of “accelerating the pace of Nigerian economic recovery, promote diversification, enhance competitiveness, and ensure social inclusion”.

2022
The National Assembly in 2022 passed a reviewed budget of N17.3 trillion for the fiscal year. Again, the federal legislators overshot the President’s proposal of N17.1 trillion with the sum of N192.5 billion.
The review of the 2022 was done after the passage of a bill to amend the 2022 Appropriations Act transmitted to the National Assembly on 10th February 2022, by former President Muhammadu Buhari.

The N17.3 trillion budget contained recurrent expenditure of N7.1 trillion, capital expenditure of N5.4 trillion, allocation for statutory transfers was N817.6 billion and Debt Service N3.97 trillion, the oil price benchmark was US$73, daily crude oil production was 1.6 million barrels per day; allocation for subsidy on Petroleum Motor Spirit (PMS) was N4.00 trillion; beside others.
The budget also had a revenue deficit of N7.35 trillion, and additional provision of N76.13 billion for servicing of domestic debt.

Former Deputy President of the Ninth Senate, Ovie Omo-Agege

Thereafter, former President Buhari had clarified that the ne4cessary adjustments to the 2022 Fiscal Framework included an increase in the projected oil price benchmark of $11 per barrel, from the initial $62 per barrel to $73 per barrel; a reduction in the projected daily oil production of 283,000 barrels per day, from 1.883 million barrels per day to 1.600 million barrels per day; an increase in the estimated provision for petrol subsidy of N442.72 billion, from N3.557 trillion to N4 trillion.

The former President had declared: “Total budget deficit is projected to increase by N965.42 billion to N7.35 trillion, representing 3.99% of GDP. The incremental deficit will be financed by new borrowings from the domestic market.”

Former Senate President Bukola Saraki and former Speaker Yakubu Dogara in the Eighth National Assembly

2023
The National Assembly in 2023 passed an ‘exit’ budget of N21.83 trillion for the fiscal year. The federal lawmakers after passing the 2023 budget, extended the life span of the 2022 budget and also passed a supplementary budget, hypothetically, to ensure the handover of the 2023 in bloc to the emergent administration of President Bola Tinubu of the same APC government lineage.

The President had proposed a budget estimate of N20.51 trillion but the legislators bloated the fiscal document with the sum of N1.32 trillion.

Highlights of the 2032 budget include: allocation of N8.3 trillion for recurrent expenditure; N5.9 trillion for capital expenditure; N967.5 billion for statutory transfers, N6.6 trillion for debt servicing.
Extension of the Life Span of the 2022 budget

In a seeming plan to handover the 2023 budget in bloc to the new administration, the federal legislators extended the life span of the 2022 budget from December 31st, 2022 to March 31st, 2023. According to the lawmakers, the extension was “to ensure the implementation of key capital projects in the Act which were yet to be funded”.
The National Assembly subsequently extended the budget tenure to June 2023 while the Buhari administration would exit office on May 29.

To substantiate the extension of the budget tenure, the National Assembly passed the 2022 Supplementary Budget of N819.5 billion former President Buhari had requested.

The National Assembly, Abuja

According to the federal lawmakers, “the supplementary budget was to address food security following devastating floods across the country as well as damages to road infrastructure and the water sector”.
Allocations in the supplementary budget, according to the report of the Committee on Finance indicated that the Ministry of Agriculture received N69 billion, the Ministry of Water Resources N15.5 billion, FCT got N30 billion, Ministry of Works and Housing received N704 billion.

Summary
Meanwhile, deducting the inherited N4.5 trillion 2015 budget from the Jonathan administration, the Buhari administration overtly presented a total sum of substantive budget proposal of N94.844 trillion in the eight years of two tenures of the former President.

The budgets were passed by two regimes of the National Assembly – The Eighth National Assembly led by Senate President Bukola Saraki, and House of Representatives Speaker, Rt. Hon. Yakubu Dogara; the Ninth National Assembly led by Senate President Ahmad Lawan and House of Representatives Speaker, Rt. Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila, now Chief of Staff to President Bola Tinubu.

President Buhari was remarkable for his reform of Nigeria’s budget system as he restored the January to December fiscal calendar of the country’s budget.

However, how successful was the over N900 trillion budgetary expenditures implemented to develop Nigeria or improve the standard of living of citizens in the eight years of the Buhari administration?

Watch out for National Daily’s  investigative findings on the noticeable achievements of the Buhari administration and the corresponding  indices of underdevelopment in Nigeria during the period under review in our next report.