Nigeria’s population increasing, budget shrinking – Duke

A former governor of Cross River State, Donald Duke, on Monday lamented the effect of Nigeria’s increase population.

He said the country’s population was increasing while its budget had shrunk in both volume and value.

The former governor spoke at the 3rd annual Mike Omotosho foundation lecture in Abuja.

He described the decrease in government’s budget in the light of Nigeria’s growing population as a disaster waiting to happen.

Duke, who compared the $25 billion budget of ex- President Shehu Shagari to the $23 billion budget proposed by President Muhammadu Buhari in 2018, concluded that Nigeria’s present expenditure was not enough to cater for its growing population.

He said: “So our landmass is shrinking but our population is growing. As if that was not bad enough, 38 years ago, 1979, between 79 and 83, we had the Second Republic. We had President Shagari and the annual budget for the four years he spent in office was $25 billion. So he spent a $100 billion in his four years in office. Our population at that time was 90 million. Today, our population is 193 million inching towards 206 million but our budget is $23 billion.

“In other words, over a spate of 38 years, our population has more than doubled but our public expenditure has shrunk both in volume and in value. If this is not a wake-up call for the disaster that looms ahead of us, then I wonder what will be.”

Nigeria, he said, is walking into slavery with its inability to provide for its teeming population.

Duke added: “Two, three hundred years ago, we were abducted into slavery. Today with our eyes open we walk into slavery.

“I don’t know what the definition of a failed state is and I don’t want to categorize Nigeria as a failed state yet. However, a state that is unable to provide for its people has failed.

“So if we are not there yet, we are walking with our eyes open into one and we need to pull the handbrakes now before it gets too late because we are literary at the verge of a cliff.”

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