News: The budget of renewed hope is hallucinatory,faces backlash from most well-meaning Nigerians.

The lawmakers in the national assembly on Saturday passed the 2024 appropriation bill, increasing its size from N27.5 trillion proposed by President Bola Tinubu to N28.7 trillion.

The lawmakers in the Red Chambers and the Green Chambers passed the bill after raising the budget size by N1.2 trillion.

In the bill passed, the sum of 1,742,786,788,150 was earmarked for statutory transfers, 8,270,960,606,831 for debt servicing, 8,768, 513, 380, 852 for recurrent expenditure while 9,995,143,143,298,028 was for capital expenditure.

As we know,the budget is a vital component of our country’s economic strategy, which shapes her entire socio-economic landscape. These budgetary estimates also serve as a guide for her public financial management in our country, Nigeria, vis a vis, a close look at some of the estimates throws up some urgent questions and concerns.

The recent news about a budget provision of N15 billion for the construction of a new residence for the Vice President is both shocking and disheartening, considering the many important challenges facing our nation, especially our education sector. 

The budget of N5 billion for student loans, which is yet to be disbursed is only a tiny percentage of the cost of the Vice President’s new home,showing how underrated our education system in Nigeria is becoming. 

Some of the following screenshot depicts how frustrated some Nigerians are with the budget of renewed hope;