Economy can’t grow with 70% recurrent budget –Bolorunduro

By Oladele Ogunsola/Ibadan
Contrary to report by the Federal Government that the country’s economy is growing, it has been said that such submission was far from the truth in the sense that there is no way the economy can grow with 70 per cent recurrent budget.
This was made known by the Commissioner for Finance of Osun State, Wale Bolorunduro, in a paper entitled: ‘Improving Public Finance for Better Governance:  The Example of the State of Osun’, which was delivered at the monthly guest forum of the Correspondents Chapel of Oyo State council of Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Ibadan, on Thursday.
He remarked that most of the submissions by the nation’s economic experts were theoretical without any practical basis, where poverty is boldly written on the faces of the people.
According to him, “we all crave for national development, whereas there cannot be any development at federal level without stirring such at state level. Every state must earnestly seek sufficient level of development through investment in physical infrastructure.
“This, however, can only be pursued through continuous agitation for capital expenditure. It is no longer shocking that Nigeria is one of the countries that are being plagued with poverty.
“Ironically, the main metric of development at any level of government are the number of jobs created; that is the quantum of people that the government or the system is able to pull out of poverty level.
“This postulate of mine is of course in tandem with macroeconomic objectives such as economic growth and development, full employment, price stability (i.e. inflation control) and poverty eradication, that are being pursued across climes”, the Commissioner stated.
He disclosed that what actually shapes governance in the state “is the popular six-point integral action plan of our amiable and focused governor, well anchored on his political ideology of ‘socialism’.
“Such include to banish poverty, banish hunger, banish unemployment, restore healthy living, promote functional education and enhance communal peace and progress.”