All praise is due to Almighty Allah. It is with deep sense of responsibility that I have the honour and privilege to present to this distinguished and Honourable House the Borno State 2017 Appropriation bill which enunciates our budget proposals for the next twelve months based on our well-articulated fiscal policy and expenditure profile as well as the concomitant revenue indicators and the underlying economic assumptions. As you may recall, the 2016 Budget which I had the privilege of presenting at this hallowed chamber exactly one year ago was tagged “Budget of Reconstruction, Rehabilitation and Resettlement” which was informed by the unprecedented infrastructural challenges we were facing at that critical point in time as a result of the horrendous destruction of institutional and public structures in almost all parts of the State by the Boko Haram insurgents. Since then we have made tremendous achievements and considerable progress in our determined efforts to address these challenges. It is in order to consolidate our modest achievements and most decidedly restore our dear State to its lofty and glorious past, that the 2017 Budget is tagged “Budget of Consolidation and Restoration: It was purposely designed to actively pursue the strategic policy initiatives of the State Government in the reconstruction and rehabilitation of the thousands of structures destroyed by the insurgents and the ultimate return of al our IDPs to their respective homes, latest by May, 2017. All the necessary machineries have been put in place to achieve this noble objective. Of course, there are other developmental initiatives outside the reconstruction and resettlement efforts which are deliberately designed to be implemented concurrently so that no sector is left behind in the scheme of things. Download full speech
