Buhari is to be blamed forNigeria's recession - Pat Utomi

- Professor Pat Utomi says Buhari cannot be free of blame, even as

Nigerians suffer and fight recession



- Utomi says the Buhari-led administration must shoulder the blame for

Nigeria's economic hardship



- He says Buhari's government should have foreseen the challenges ahead of time



Prof Pat Utomi, the director of the Lagos Business School, has said

that the lack of planning by President Muhammadu Buhari and his team,

is what Nigerians are suffering at the moment.



Utomi who made this assertion on Wednesday, March 5, in Awka, blamed

the APC administration for the economic recession in the country,

arguing that those attributing the recession to fall in oil price were

bad mangers.



President Muhammadu Buhari during the Federal Executive Council

Meeting held at the Council Chamber State House Abuja.



Utomi, who spoke as guest lecturer at the maiden edition of Dr

Emmanuel Egbogah budget round-table organized by the Nnamdi Azikiwe

University Business School, Awka, said the Buhari government should

have foreseen the situation, had it been that it was futuristic in

budget planning and management of resources.



His lecture titled: "Budget Processes In Nigeria: Challenges And

Implications For National Development" , blamed the situation in the

country on lack foresight, adding that a good national budget ought to

have preempted the situation.

According to him, a good budget should contain what the people want

and envisage the implications of future economic changes and

challenges.



He said: "Our major problem is that we lack planning and if there is

no discipline, then budgeting is a waste of time.



"Budgeting process must be matched with where the people are going,

but beyond revenue and expenditure, budget has to do with discipline

and execution.



"Those blaming fall in oil price are just bad mangers because fall in

oil price is not the cause of this recession."



Utomi also lamented the prevailing backwardness in the country,

stating that the sad situation was basically thrown up by the events

of 1966, when, he said, a gang of military boys hijacked the

leadership of the country



According to him, the same characters had remained in power since then

in different guises.



Similarly, the deputy chairman, House of Representatives Committee on

Appropriation, Mr Chris Azubuogu, in his keynote address, listed

factors that hindered the actualization of national budget to include

poor funding of budget, lopsided budgeting, deficit budget and high

domestic debt profile which he said was in trillions of naira.



Vanguard reports that in his address, the

director of the school, Prof Austin Nonyelu said the conference was

necessitated by the challenges and problems that bedeviled Nigeria's

budget process at all levels of governance, which he noted, had

impacted negatively on service delivery.



He said Nigeria budget process at all levels of governance was

bedeviled by myriad challenges and problems which impact negatively on

service delivery.



"The common narrative in Nigeria is that federal and state budgets are

rarely implemented with consequential negative effects.



"The newly established Unizik Business School in Nnamdi Azikiwe

University, Awka is committed to unraveling these issues, and hopes to

provide the roadmap that will direct, and reorient the entire

mechanisms and processes involved in budget development and

implementation," he said.



Meanwhile, a faction of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) being led

by Senator Ahmed Makarfi, has said that it is wrong to blame God for

the outbreak of Cerebrospinal Meningitis in the country.



It said that rather than blame God, the Governor of Zamafara State,

Alhaji Abdullaziz Yari should blame his political party, the All

Progressives Congress for its inability to curtail the scourge.



CAMPUSNAIJA.info gathered that Makarfi stated this in a statement

issued by the spokesperson for the sacked National Caretaker Committee

of the party which he heads, Prince Dayo Adeyeye in Abuja on

Wednesday.



Adeyeye said that the primary responsibility of any government was to

protect the lives and property of its citizens, adding that the

APC-led Federal Government had remained insensitive, careless and

adamant to the plight of Nigerians in all ramification.



He said: "As of Tuesday, about 336 Nigerians have lost their lives due

to the outbreak of type C Cerebrospinal Meningitis and the Federal

Ministry of Health has not taken any concrete step to contend with the

spread.



" It is on record that the PDP Government in 16 years did not allow

such mindless display of insensitivity as seen by this APC

Administration."