Oby Ezekwesili

By Kazeem Ugbodaga.
Activist, Oby Ezekwesili, has criticized President Muhammadu Buhari’s movement of Budget from the Ministry of Finance to that of National Planning.

In Buhari’s new cabinet, the Ministry of Finance stands alone from the previous one which used to be Ministry of Finance and Budget. The budget has been moved and merged with National Planning to now read, Ministry of Budget and National Planning, with Udo Udo Udoma as the Minister.

Ezekwesili, on her twitter handle, @obyezeks, said “seeing that Budget is moved out of Finance to National Planning, there are some downsides and upshots. Got to watch out more for the former!”

She added that “a Minister of Finance without control of tool of the Budget can be hampered in managing the Fiscal imperatives of the Economy.” Ezewkesili said the “Truth is National Planning as presently constituted may not have the sharpest skills needed for the kind of strategic budgeting required.”

According to her, “National Planning has been rather anachronistic. With this new profile as managers of the Budget, Udoma would need to overhaul and renew.”
She said in countries where Budget and Finance were separate, it took professional maturity of the two ministers to get anything done.

“The movement of Budget away from Finance to National Planning is one risk to watch out for in the new structure of Ministries,” she said.