Seun Onigbinde, Akintunde Oyebode, Ugodre Obi-Chukwu, Shade Ladipo, and Ferdinand Adimefe
[L-R
by Isi Esene
The 2013 Budget has been submitted before the National Assembly with many analysts commending the efforts of the executive arm of government at accomplishing the task in record time.
Modest cuts have been made in recurrent expenditure and other key financial indices but analysts have also identified outrageous line items in the amounts budgeted for feeding, papers, fumigation, and much more.
The October 21 edition of Rubbin’ Minds brings all these factors and more to the fore with the help of informed guests like Seun Onigbinde, founder of Budgit.com; Ugodre Obi-Chukwu, owner of Resourcedat.com, and Akintunde Oyebode, financial analyst and banker.
In the programme which was hosted by Shade Ladipo and Ferdinand Adimefe, Akintunde Oyebode expressed concern over the “undue exposure of the economy to external shock” to guard against undue pressure on the economy.
He pointed out that the budget was suspiciously vague on the aspect of non-oil revenue adding that “it should be a prerequisite for everyone who’s going to be the president to read the book Why Nations Fail‘”
On the oil benchmark which was set at $75/barrel, Oyebode said, “It is almost economically unsound to have a discussion around $75-80, why not $90 or $100?”
Seun Onigbinde on his part pointed out the serially unchanging structure of the Nigerian budget and also urged the Federal Government to step down its disruptive bureaucracy.
Ugodre Obi-Chukwu said he sees nothing wrong in borrowing as long as it is done with financial intelligence. He said if things are not done right, “what you spend and your deficit pool keeps getting larger, then future generation are the ones to pay for it.”
This edition of Rubbin’ Minds was intellectually stimulating with the spotlight focused on the 2013 budgetary aspirations of the Federal Government.
