Foremost economist, Professor Pat Utomi, has said that the present administration’s poor planning and lack of foresight were responsible for the country’s current economic woes.
The former presidential candidate said this while speaking as a guest lecturer at Dr Emmanuel Egbogah Budget Roundtable organised by the Business School of Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, Anambra state.
The scholar said those who attribute the current recession to the fall in oil price are bad managers of the economy.
He said President Muhammadu Buhari and his economic team would have preempted the situation if they had been futuristic in budget planning and management of resources.
In a lecture titled: “Budget Processes In Nigeria: Challenges And Implications For National Development,” Utomi said a good budget should contain what the people would want and should envisage the implications of future economic changes and challenges.
“Our major problem is that we lack planning and budget discipline. In beginning of a budgeting process, it must be matched with where the people are going; but beyond revenue and expenditure, budget has to do with discipline and execution. Those blaming fall in oil price were just bad managers. That was not the cause of this recession,” he said.
