A recent survey by Nairametrics has revealed that former military
president of Nigeria, late General Sani Abacha, performed more than
every other Nigerian ruler since 1999 with the capital expenditure
against the recurrent expenditure.
The report, which was influenced by the recent anomalies discovered
from Nigeria’s 2016 budget, showed that the military government fares
better than the democratic leaders in this aspect of the budget,
especially the Abacha government.
This is coming in spite of the massive loot recorded in his
administration, and the revelations made by the foreign banks where he
reportedly hid most of the wealth he amassed.
When civil servants and public officials in a democratic system of
government fail to contribute to nation building despite their huge
earnings, bureaucracy takes over and capital projects are most hit.
In fact, successive governments in the country have had to deal with
this anomaly over the years as the recurrent expenditure is always way
above capital expenditure.
But the Abacha government proved to be just ahead of the democratically elected leaders since 1999 as the chart below indicates.
Capital Expenditure vs Recurrent Expenditure (including interest payment) 1994-2014. Source: Nairametrics
According to the chart, the period between 1994 and 1999 showed that
the capital expenditure as a percentage of government revenue outstrip
recurrent was as high as 77%, however, when the democratically elected
presidents came in, things took a negative turn.
On
how Abacha was able to pull this stunt under his administration, which
no leader after him has been able to, Nairametrics noted that Petroleum
Trust Fund (PTF) managed by current Nigerian president, Muhammadu Buhari
carried out a lot of capital projects and there was basically a
parallel government at the time.
Meanwhile, as Nigerians continue to groan under the hardship of
continuous oil price slump and the fall of naira against the dollar,
reports emerged today that the Nigerian currency firmed up about 3 per
cent against the dollar.
Source:Naij
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