On Tuesday, Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari’s Senior Special Assistant on Prosecution said a significant chunk of the finance for the 2017 budget will be from recovered looted cash.
The Senior Special Assistant, Okoi Obono-Obla made this announcement while addressing the press on Tuesday in Abuja. He was briefing the press on what the federal government is doing with the already recovered looted cash.
“About 20% of this year’s budget will be financed from our recovery effort.”
Obono-Obla further said the Federal government will liaise with the National Assembly for permission before using the funds. The current Acting Nigerian President, Yemi Osinbajo signed a ₦7.44 trillion budget into law; although the budget is expected to have a deficit of ₦2.36 trillion according to Osinbajo.
“The projected fiscal deficit of ₦2.36 trillion is to be financed largely by borrowing,” said Osinbajo.
However, there is no clarity on whether the 20% Mr. Obono-Obla was talking about is for the total budget or the ₦5.08 trillion Nigeria expect to finance its 2017 budget. Nonetheless, the Acting President went ahead to commend the All Progressives Congress-led federal government. He credits them for the stability of the country’s policy and stopping corruption in public offices.
He gave reassurance that the APC is not currently embroiled in a leadership crisis as being reported by a section of the media. He debunked claims that the raid conducted on the Sun Newspaper’s offices by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) was done with the intention of victimization.
“They didn’t go there because the Sun published a news story that is averse to the EFCC or the federal government. They went there to do their work as part of their mandate to fight economic and financial crimes,” said Osinbajo.
The narrative is that the media house being owned by a former governor, who is currently undergoing prosecution by the EFCC, they got an interim forfeiture court order pending the hearing of the case.