Orji Kalu slams 2023 budget, says 'Nigeria is at war'

The Nigerian Senate Chief Whip, Orji Kalu, has called on the Nigerian government to reduce the cost of governance to save the country from a deepening economic crisis.

Mr. Kalu said so during the consideration of the 2023 draft budget by the National Assembly.

President Muhammadu Buhari presented the draft budget totaling N20.5 trillion to the assembly last Friday.

Mr. Kalu, while giving his observations during the consideration of the draft budget, denounced the deterioration of the economy of the country.

He posted a video clip of the exam session on his Facebook page on Thursday.

The former Governor of Abia State, who now represents Abia North District, said the government must show commitment to solving the country's economic problem.

“Nigeria is no exception (in the global economic crisis), but we need to reduce the cost of governance. The cost of governance is too heavy. productivity.

“We are doing nothing. We are just a consumer nation. We should go back to agriculture if our people want us out of the woes we find ourselves in,” he said.

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Mr. Kalu said the government was not making the necessary efforts to deal with the country's deteriorating economy, citing oil refineries that have been out of operation for a long time.

"How can we see things that should be justifiable in the economy that no one is doing? The pipelines are broken.

"How can we have refineries that don't work? How do we want to make money, if not borrow? We have no recourse but to borrow," added the former governor.

He said the country has been forced to borrow to deal with the ravaging insecurity and worsening economic crisis which he said has affected the country's agricultural and industrial productivity .

"We are at war in Nigeria. The North East, North West, South East wars - these are all wars and we have no other opportunity (to grow the economy) because our farmers are not going to their farms. There is no productivity in Nigeria. The capacities of industries are declining.

“Industrialists are not manufacturing. Capacities have dropped below six percent everywhere. I have two industries in Lagos. But they are closed due to economic difficulties. The solution to doing nothing is to borrow unless we start producing."

"Repeated Items"

The Chief Whip criticized the proposed budget, pointing out that some elements that had been in previous budgets were repeated in the proposed budget.

"I'm saying the finance and appropriations committee needs to look at all these annual rehearsals," he said.

Giving an example, the senator said stationery and furniture that had been budgeted for in the previous budget were repeated in the proposal.

"What I saw in this (proposed) budget is what I saw last year in the budget (2022) and it's not going to be good for us. We can't keep recycling Mr. Kalu said.

He said the country was wrong to keep buying new furniture and stationery every year.

"What happened to furniture and stationery affected in previous budgets?" he said.

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