have pegged the budget based on current reality
– He said the current economic problem was inevitable
– He said diversification should have been the focus long ago
Hon Saturday Uwulekhue who is the commissioner for
solid mineral in Edo state has said that the current economic predicament in President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration should be blamed on previous administrations who failed to peg budget based on economic reality.
According to The Nation reports, Uwulekhue said the
previous administration should have put the reality of the country into consideration while using the dollar as a benchmark in preparing the budget
He said what was happening now was inevitable and should have been seen as coming.
He said: “What we are observing today should have been
expected by the previous government and by those who
were saddled with the responsibilities of advising government.
For instance the price of oil was based on the abnormalities in the prices of oil in the international market and people were working the budget based on the
abnormalities.”
“The issue is that what we are seeing at the international
market is that we were living in a borrowed economy because of the crisis in the international market.”
“They would have prepared the budget based on the reality
on ground. Budgets were based on these abnormalities. I believe that the issue of diversification should have long
been taken care off before now. We should have done that over 20years ago.
As I speak no state government has any
other source of revenue other than oil. No machines are on ground to explore or exploit solid minerals, all that is
happening is that private sector participation. What the government do is just collect its taxes and haulage and personal income tax.”