The Nigerian National Budget and Development Engineering Under Civil Rule

Abstract

Developed countries of the world always utilize their national budget as viable tools for development engineering. This is because of the potentials of effective budgets for the realization of better lives for the citizenry of such countries. However, the effective management of national budget has remained a mirage in developing countries including Nigeria. This paper examines the performance of national budgets in Nigeria under the present civilian government. The paper discovered dismal failure in the performances of national budgets as a result of irreconcilable disagreement between the Executive and the Legislature leading to delays in budget implementation as well as large corruption among other factors. The paper infers that public budgeting in Nigeria requires radical re-organization and re-orientation coupled with strong political will to make national budgets become powerful instrument for development engineering.