'Buhari's 2016 budget is not too much'

During a thanksgiving ceremony organised by his former aides to mark his ministerial appointment yesterday, December 27, 2015, at Isan-Ekiti in Ekiti State, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, minister of Solid Minerals and former Governor of Ekiti State, said the N6.08 trillion 2016 appropriation bill presented before the National Assembly by President Muhammadu Buhari was not too much considering the level of infra-structural decay and other sundry problems confronting the nation.

According to Fayemi, the Ministry of Power, Works and Housing which was appropriated the sum of N433 billion, the largest share in the budget could still not boast that the amount would be enough to turn around the infrastructural facilities across the nation.

Read: Nigeria to review mining licences as part of industry overhaul

In his words, "The former governor of Lagos State who superintends over the Ministry of Power, Works and Housing with about N433 billion budgetary provision cannot say the amount is enough to turn around the facilities of this country if you look at what was involved.

“Lagos-Ibadan expressway alone will gulp N250 billion while the remaining amount may go with the second Niger bridge, so no Minister can say the amount budgeted is more than enough."

Meanwhile, Fayemi lamented about the neglect of the mineral potentials of the country since independence, saying the sector has the capacity to turn around the country’s economy, considering its local consumption by industries and export benefits.

Read: Federal Government set to boost sector

Speaking on the presidential budget, Fayemi assured Nigerians that it is targeted at improving the lives of the masses, while promising that it will be pursued with passion to realize its focus.

Quoting the Minister, “The budget presented by President Buhari has a focus and the focus is to improve on the well being of all Nigerians and to improve on the infrastructural facilities across the nation .

“So, what we need now is to prove our mettle by being innovative and be creative. We need to work very hard to actualize the focus of this budget and this will only be measured by the level of impacts we are able to make on Nigerian masses”.

Fayemi added that Nigeria’s self-sufficiency in cement production is enough to attest to the fact that the country is richly blessed.

“Nigeria is well endowed. Our self-sufficiency in limestone for production of cement, marble , ceramic and many others in terms of local consumption and export rate, one would know that Nigeria is endowed.

“In my local community in Isan Ekiti here, we have clay and kaolin and that was why we are regarded as pottery capital of Ekiti. But what have we achieved or done with this potential? And this endowment can be replicated a thousand folds across Nigeria.

“In Ijero Ekiti, there a feldspar , tantalite stone, Kaolin and many others. Even just look at the stones across the country , if it is just to cut and polish and use as tiles, one cannot imagine the huge economic gains and the employment it will generate, let alone the export earnings that are involved.

“We have been getting cheap money from oil and now the cheap money is gone. Now, we have to look inward and that is exactly what the budget is targeted to achieve”. He said.