By Dr David Matsanga in surrey UK

Last year and this year I sat down in the Old Bailey Court in London listening to the government lawyers defending the Rwanda scheme and I wondered why Rishi Sunak was interested in sending illegal undocumented immigrants to a country that has just recovered from the genocide in 1994.

As an African scholar and investigative journalist, I am interested in such case studies that help future generations. I still want to research further on why Rwanda a peaceful and pride model for Africa was chosen for the scheme.

I want to be on record by saying that those whose backgrounds have traits of immigrant nature have been at the forefront of “exporting others” to Rwanda. I had warned my dear sister from Uganda Pritt Patel not to start this Rwanda saga but she   that it was sad as people who originally came from Africa should use Africa as a dumping site.

I am smiling all the way to the airport as I leave Heathrow for Accra for my Pan African work to better and defend my continent from Colonial American hangovers. The mistakes America makes in the world turns UK into a battlefield.

The Sunak project is now dead and buried. Rishi Sunak wanted to undo the entire 1951 Geneva Convention that the United Kingdom helped to enact after the second World War. He messed up UK and will return to write his memoirs and eat the wealth he added on a huge family purse.

One question that lingers in my mind to date is why do some of our Asia brothers and sisters especially those who have roots from East Africa hate immigrants so much yet most of their families were immigrants? In both occasions my British Asian sisters and brother Rishi Sunak exhibited their dislike for immigrants.

I want to debunk the lies by those who unfairly hate President Paul Kagame. The on-Rwanda Scheme was not his scheme. It was the scheme of Pritt Patel. Rwanda Government did not ask the United Kingdom for Syrian and Afganistan undocumented immigrants. It was targeted because they wanted to fail Rwanda. Africa was targeted as a dumping ground.

I will always defend a friend at their lowest or at their highest peaks. My dear good friend President Kagame himself a former refugee is simply a good man but did not ask widely on the risks of the scheme. He acted in good FAITH with wrong people like Pritt Patel, based on a wrong foreign policy of a lead of a Commonwealth country of UK.

It was the mess of Tory psuedo foreign policy work of few right wing nationalists in the conservative government that went around the world shopping for the resettlement of their former combatants in the Syrian and Afganistan wars.

The most prudish behaviour was exhibited when Rishi Sunak went to a full length of telling the UK Parliament to change the European Human Rights law and ignore the European Courts – He termed them “Foreign Courts” Truly speaking this guy was a very hater of immigrants. But in the courts, we defeated him and in public opinion we did also last week.

That said, let us celebrate the new Labour Government led by Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer that has promised change. The change where all world citizens are not segregated on the basis of race, religion or colour. Britain is multicultural society with values for all.

British people are the only people in the world that inspire hope in all world citizens despite their backgrounds. They support real refugees not fake ones, they give second chance to those whose lives were shattered by conflicts in the world.

The new Labour Government must research on the root causes of influx of immigrants to the English Channel. With our slogan -change the British Foreign Policy must change. It must deal with root causes not symptoms of those conflicts that create the influx.

Syrian, Iraq and Afganistan wars were all fought on falsehood. The Tony Blair sexed dossiers that brought us misery. Starmer must avoid Blair mistakes- he should not create the Zimbabwe style of foreign policy-Blair isolated Zimbabwe instead of containment and engagement.

I must be bold and state here that Tony Blair, Clare Shot, Baroness Patricia Scotland Baroness Amos, Lord Peter Haines, Baroness Kate Hoey must not come near any African policy desks because they will again create refugees in Africa.

We must not repeat the mistakes that caused the Zimbabwe misery in 1998. The Brighton mistakes must not be repeated. Millions of Labour members and supporters have brought about the landslide majority let us give them hope.

In 1997 in the former Croydon Central constituency we wrestled with the Tories only to be disappointed by Tony Blair with his Isolation policies and sexed dossiers. Blair’s foreign policy put us in opposition for 14 years.

The Conservative policies brought the boats in the waters and near the Borders of UK in the English Channel – they were sparked by failure of a foreign policy that never listened to containment and to dialogue.

The Syrian war brought quite a lot of suffering to the people of the world. The Syrian immigrants never wanted to leave their homes.  It was France that started the War against Syrian government which they did not win.

The same France as a country is the source of all wars in the world that creates immigrants. It is again in France where a mafia type of operations take place on immigrants. Dubious human being traffickers are allowed to pay the mafia to cross the immigrants from France into UK.

The first step for the Labour Government is to look at the 1951 Geneva Convention and reinforce it. The first country where refugees land is where they claim asylum. Why does France accommodate the illegal immigrants and then deport them to United Kingdom?

As I land, I wish the new Prime Minister Keir Starmer the best of luck on Foreign policy. We voted with logic and we are here to help so as to give solutions. We shall protect British interests abroad but let the Labour Party avoid the past miserable policies of Tony Blair’s sexed and doctored dossiers that plunged Iraq into terrible state.

The writer is a Pan Africanist based in London, Political scientist & International Relations expert, studied conflict Resolution, a member of Royal African Society (RAS) Founder /Chairman Pan African Forum (UK)Ltd @MatsangaDr

Stories Continues after ad

A country’s budget is simply a projection of revenue and expenditure for a period. When expenditures exceed projected revenue, additional funding sources—such as borrowings are indicated; resulting in a deficit budget. Budget estimates should be realistic and achievable within the budget year. A country’s budget reflects the policies and priorities of the government. It is an essential planning tool and should align with the long-term goals and aspirations of the country.

Supplementary budgets are meant to fund expenditure items that may have been omitted from the main budget or spin-off from unforeseen circumstances like war or pandemics, such as #COVID-19. The budgeting process should be thorough to avoid omissions that might necessitate requests for supplementary budgets or the need to vire funds from one expenditure category to another. Wars and pandemics are however often unpredictable.

It is public knowledge that the Federal Government has often extended the capital component of its annual budget into subsequent fiscal years, typically until March or May. However, the National Assembly’s approval to extend the capital portion of the 2023 Annual and Supplementary Budgets until December 2024 has raised eyebrows, as it seems somewhat unusual. Complicating matters further, the Federal Government is likely to submit 2024 Supplementary Appropriation Bill to the National Assembly for approval soon. This implies that, at some point, the country may have four budgets running concurrently. This situation could have been avoided with better budget preparation and implementation. Running multiple budgets simultaneously complicates monitoring and execution.

Only the amount of expenditure likely to be expended within the year should be included in the budget. For example, if constructing road costs four hundred million naira and takes eighteen months to complete, it would be incorrect to allocate the entire amount to the budget as the project would extend into the next year. Only the portion that can be completed within the current budget period should be budgeted.

Additionally, when preparing the budget for the subsequent year, the portion of capital projects unlikely to be completed in the current year should be rolled over to the next budget. For instance, if one billion naira is allocated for a project in a year and it appears only seven hundred million will be spent by year-end, the remaining three hundred million should be included in the subsequent year’s budget.

A better approach to deal with the current scenario would be to consolidate the uncompleted portion of the Capital component of the 2023 Annual and Supplementary Budgets into the 2024 Supplementary Appropriation Bill. This would prevent having four or potentially five budgets running simultaneously. We are only halfway through the year, yet a supplementary budget request will soon be made. What is the likelihood that another request will not be made before year-end?

The National Budget, as a planning and control tool, should be prepared with utmost diligence. The practice of extending budgets into subsequent years should not be encouraged. While requests for supplementary budgets are often unavoidable, they should be minimized. They should primarily be to take care of unforeseen circumstances rather than omissions. Achieving these goals requires better budget preparation and implementation. Running multiple budgets complicates monitoring and execution even future

Author: Kenechukwu Aguolu   FCA, PMP, CBAP

Abuja, Nigeria

Stories Continues after ad