Over the last year, the price of crude has rumbled from over $100 a barrel to about $40 a barrel and Nigeria has been one of those producers hard hit as oil is the government's main revenue earner. As a result, the government is struggling to make its budgetary figures add up and may have to revise expenditure.
Yesterday, Mr Lawal told political office holders to adjust themselves to the reality as despite production rising to 1.7m barrels per day from 800,000 barrels, revenue coming in was down. Appearing before Senate Ethics Committee Mr Lawal said that the administration would not be able to implement constituency projects captured in the 2016 budget.
However, he said that this was his personal opinion and not the position of the federal government. However, senators warned that the non- implementation of constituency projects was a violation of the Appropriation Act that required necessary sanctions.
Members of the committee insisted that the projects, which only constituted 0.3% of the money in the 2016 budget, must be fully implemented without any part unattended to. However, Mr Lawal said his statement was based on the dwindling resources available to the government.
He added: “This morning, for example, the budget minister said basically the revenue profile of the country is that we are now earning between 50% to 60% of our projected earnings, meaning that there might be a loss of 40% of the money appropriated for in the budget. Now, 40% is quite a significant amount, not only oil."
Mr Lawal explained that unlike in the past when funds were being released for the execution of capital projects on a quarterly basis, the trend had changed in the new dispensation. He added that now, the government’s position is that funds would be released to key prioritised projects according to the level of importance and significance.
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