2023 Budget: I’m against leaving debt for next administration - Oluremi Tinubu

Senator Oluremi Tinubu (APC-Lagos) says she would “go against” a government leaving huge debts for an incoming administration to bear.

Mrs Tinubu, who is the wife of Bola Tinubu, the ruling All Progressives Congress presidential candidate for the 2023 elections, said borrowings within an acceptable limit could however be tolerated.

“I will go against a government that will borrow and leave debt for incoming administration or the country to inherit.

“If you borrow on a very healthy threshold there is nothing wrong with it,” Mrs Tinubu said after President Muhammadu Buhari presented a N20.5 trillion 2023 Appropriation Bill before the National Assembly on Friday.

The federal government plans to finance the deficit in the budget mainly by new borrowings totalling N8.80 trillion, N206.18 billion from privatisation proceeds and N1.77 trillion drawdowns on bilateral/multilateral loans secured for specific development projects/programmes

On blocking revenue leakages, Mrs Tinubu said that the 9th assembly has done a lot to ensure that agencies remit their revenues to government coffers.

“Most of the agencies are remitting back to the government and they are doing that very well and the national assembly is also monitoring that.”

The chairman of Senate Committee on Appropriation, Jibrin Barau, on his part said that the Buhari-led administration had done a lot in terms of infrastructure development.

“I have never seen any government that has done better than this government in terms of infrastructure development.

“I have been a participant in the budget process since 1999 when we started the new journey into democracy. There is no government in the history of Nigeria that has invested so much in infrastructure.

“The government has done very well. It has performed in a manner we need to commend it.

“All we need to do is to continue on where the government is going to stop next year,” he said.

Meanwhile, Senate Minority Whip Chukwuka Utazi (PDP-Enugu) said that the economy was in a crisis because of oil theft.

“Oil theft is a major organised crime. If the 2023 budget is going to work, and if the administration that is going to take over is going to succeed, then oil theft must be addressed.

“It has to start with this administration fighting the crime while the remaining seven months should be concentrated in ensuring that we find lasting solutions to oil theft while we still think about the non-oil revenues coming from other sources.”

The 2023 Appropriation Bill is tagged “Budget of Fiscal Sustainability and Transition” and is Mr Buhari’s last as he rounds off his tenure next year.