Budget 2009 - Dead On Arrival.

Byline: Les Leba

The 2009 Budget proposals were finally presented to the National Assembly on Tuesday, 2/12/2008 after two postponements within two weeks, due to what may be described as negligent prevarications!

The late announcement of both notices of postponement, were received barely hours before the scheduled briefings, and this certainly speaks volumes on the level of seriousness and commitment of this administration!

Regretfully, this carelessness and the budget content itself also underlined government's low regard for the intelligence and welfare of our people!

Indeed, the most respectable feature of Mr. President's presentation was the unequivocal admission that "performance of the 2008 budget has been ... far from satisfactory"; Nigerians would read this assessment as abject failure.

The public applause which greeted Yar'Adua's early presentation of the 2008 budget more than three months before January 1st this year, gradually gave way to public anxiety and frustration as the budget was bounced between the Executive and Legislature for another 12 months until its eventual passage six weeks or so before …