Nigeria’s projected earnings in the 2016 budget has crashed by 40 per cent, the Secretary General of the Federation, SGF, Babachir Lawal, on Wednesday, July 13, disclosed.
This was even as he said the country’s oil production capacity had risen to 1.7 million barrels per day from its initial 800,000 barrels.
Lawal spoke when he appeared before the joint Senate Committee on Ethics, Privileges and Public Petitions, Finance and Appropriation, to defend the statement credited to him to the effect that the administration would not be able to implement constituency projects captured in the 2016 budget.
He however told the Senator Samuel Anyanwu-led joint committee that the statement was his opinion and not the position of the Federal Government.
To this end, the Senate warned that 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 per cent of the money in the 2016 budget, must be fully implemented without any part unattended to.
The SGF, who owned up to the statement, said he was not emphatic on his statement, saying it was based on the dwindling resources available to the government.
