“Our new Constitution is now established, and has an appearance that promises permanency; but in this world, nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes,”
Expert lauds Buhari for early presentation of 2022 Budget proposal to NASS guardian.ng - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from guardian.ng Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Economists and allied professionals have faulted the 2022 appropriation, saying it lacks the necessary creativity, freshness and sincerity to pull the economy out of the woods.
• Withdrawal of CBN’s budget support threatens survival • Some states can’t pay debts in 50 years, says Uba • Adonri warns of impeding social unrests State governments are in dire strait as make-up funding sources dry up amid tumbling earnings, crippling their ability to repay existing loans and meet essential obligations. While state governments mouth disdain for mounting debts and declining financial capacity, the cost of governance has continued to rise across different states with only a handful managing to pay the N30,000 minimum wage. Amid growing liquidity crisis, findings have suggested that many state governors are queuing for commercial loans to offset “spending plans and schedules” that cannot wait. This is raising dust in the financial circle, as it would increase the already high banks’ exposure to governments.
Unemployment in Nigeria
The March 15, 2014, stampedes that left at least 16 people dead during a recruitment exercise by the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) had served the major purpose of drawing global attention to the alarming rate of unemployment in the country. About 520, 000 people were shortlisted for the NIS recruitment exams, at the end of which only 4,556 would have been recruited based on the available vacancies. To register for the exams, the applicants had paid N1000 each, meaning the NIS raked in about N520 million from jobless citizens.
The applicants were to sit for the exams at selected test centres in all the 36 states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja, on that fateful day. In the FCT alone, it was reported that over 60,000 candidates thronged the M. K. O. Abiola Stadium, the venue of the recruitment exams, and were allowed access through only a single doorway, perhaps to avoid ‘gate crashing’.