Recession: Nigeria is broke, can’t afford 2021 budget – Atiku

Former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar has advised the executive that the 2021 proposed budget is no longer tenable.

He stated that Nigeria is broke and cannot afford the luxurious items in the N13.08 trillion budget proposal.

The advice is coming as Nigeria slided into a second recession in 5 years following 2 successive negative quarters growth.

Atiku in a Twitter thread on Sunday stated that COVID-19 only complicated an existing economic problem.

“We cannot afford hand wringing and navel-gazing. We must act now, by taking necessary, and perhaps painful actions.

“For a start, the proposed 2021 budget presented to the National Assembly on Tuesday, October 8, 2020, is no longer tenable.

“Nigeria neither has the resources nor the need to implement such a luxury heavy budget. The nation is broke, but not broken. However, if we continue to spend lavishly, even when we do not earn commensurately, we would go from being a broke nation to being a broken nation.

“Until our economic prospects improve, Nigeria ought to exclusively focus on making budgetary proposals for essential items, which include reasonable wages and salaries, infrastructural projects, and social services (citizenry’s health, and other human development investments).”

The various committees of the National Assembly are still working on the budget.