Nigerians not feeling impact of economic recovery – CISLAC

Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC)
The Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC) has said that the reported improvement in the nation’s economy is still largely reflected in government figures and statistics and not having direct bearings on the citizenry.
Its Executive Director, Auwal Musa Rafsanjani, said at a state of the nation media briefing on Tuesday in Abuja, and that poor implementation of the nation’s budget of not more than 20 percent was worrisome and should be immediately addressed in the interest of national security.
He expressed concern over the on-going fuel scarcity rocking the nation and crippling economic activities, due to what he said was triggered by lack of sufficient reserve, low clearance speed of petrol at the ports and diversion of products.
“We are bothered that the reported improvement in the economy is still largely reflected in government figures and statistics. The high level of unemployment at 18.8 per cent generally and 33.10 percent for youths, backlog of unpaid salaries, epileptic power supply and, recently, the crisis hardship created by the non-availability of petroleum products are sad reminders of a poorly managed economy.
“The poor level of budget implementation of the 2017 budget is lamentable. Apart from the delay in the passage of budgets, an implementation level of less than 20 per cent calls for serious concerns. It is bad enough that capital allocations are usually inadequate and frivolous. Wasteful provisions, poor disbursement and utilisation only create economic uncertainties and negatively impacts on the welfare of citizens,” Rafsanjani said.
While saying that the 2018 budget was not close to being passed, despite April projection for its passage, he said that this is a recipe for economic crisis and avenue for corruption and unapproved spending, which could be diverted for political party or selfish uses by the various MDAs in a pre-election year.