By Olanrewaju Ajao Nasarawa state governor Umaru Tanko Al-Makura, has said the N6 trillion 2016 budget proposal presented to the National Assembly by President Muhammadu Buhari is implementable.
According to him, with the ongoing fight against corruption, all the impediments to full budget performance will be eradicated.
Almakura gave the assurance while fielding questions from State House correspondents on Tuesday.
He said that despite the free fall of the price of crude at the international market, Buhari’s administration would source funds internally to finance the budget.
“God willing, we will implement this budget because you have to be optimistic. All the potentials are there for effective utilization of resources. But what has been the problem in the past was misapplication and outright maladministration with regard to resources accruing to the country.
“Given the position and focus of Mr. President and his sense of accountability, he knows exactly what he is doing or saying when he makes a budget of that magnitude. It only goes to prove that all the corruption, all the stealing; all the squandering of riches that has been the lot of this country will be a thing of the past. I believe that even if the budget is more than that, we will be able to accomplish it hence we are able to detect and identify areas where people in government are stealing blindly.
“We will be able to provide for the people of this country all the necessary facilities and utilities that they deserve given the potentials for the resources that we have. Mr. President’s attention is much more on revenue generation in other sources. So, forget about the issue of the benchmark of the naira, the falling prices of oil in the international market, there are many other sources that this country can depend on to make us survive.
“We didn’t have oil in the 1960s, we had hide and skin, cocoa, groundnut and so many things. We are going back to the basics to ensure that every available opportunity for revenue generation will be tapped. What is more is that the President is really serious and concerned about revolutionizing the petroleum industry. You can see it from the news that the Kaduna will start refining oil this week. So with this kind of prospect and signs of good hope, I believe whatever amount in the budget will be implementable and the people will get the desired dividends,” the governor said.
Asked how he intended to tap alternative revenues for his state, he said: “For us in Nasarawa State, we have two, three getaways to ensure effective revenue generation. One is the solid minerals. We are not just going to do the business as usual of just getting investors to come and prospect, we will also participate fully in the prospecting and exploitation of these minerals and give a lot of tax holidays and incentives so that we can have a lot of investors who will come and partake. Secondly, Nasarawa State has a large agricultural potential waiting to be tapped.”
