Senate seeks return to national development planning

THE Senate has emphasised the need to return the country to the path of national planning, as a means to ensure sustainable growth and development. Towards this end, the upper legislative chamber, on Thursday, mandated its committees on National Planning and Finance to review the current planning linkage and recommend amendment to relevant laws. It also described the current budgeting process adopted by the Federal Government as arbitrary, declaring that the “envelope” system adopted in 2003 by the Ministry of Finance in arriving at budgets for ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) would be scrapped in 2014. The Senate also contended that the current national budgeting process had made the legislature to be less involved, relying solely on the information provided by the executive arm of government. This was sequel to a motion moved by Senator Olubunmi Adetunmbi, who described national development planning as the dominant policy instrument in many low-income and emerging market economies. He said the role of national planning, which once served as Nigeria’s roadmap to development, had been subsumed into the Nigerian budget process. He averred that what used to be a five-year development plan had now been replaced by Medium-Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF). Deputy Senate Leader, Abdul Ningi, said national planning would enable a nation to know its standing. In his remarks, Senate President, David Mark, described the motion as one of the most important ones ever considered in the chamber. According to him, national planning had been jettisoned, adding that as a result, poverty and unemployment had continued to be on the rise.