The Federal Budget is the Federal Government's instrument for allocating public resources among the nation's competing socio-economic needs. It is a financial representation of government's spending plans for delivering public goods and services to our key stakeholders - Nigerian citizens.

However, many stakeholders do not understand the Budget due to misconcept ions arising from the complexity of the Budget, with its innumerable heads, sub-heads, figures and provisions. Without this understanding of what the Budget is all about, citizens and other stakeholders cannot easily engage in the budget process and hold Government accountable for the prudent management of the financial resources held in trust for the benef it of all Nigerians.

This Citizens' Guide therefore seeks to illuminate the Budget by making it a more open, transparent and accessible document, empowering citizens to have a better understanding of the Budget preparation process, implementation and review and to ultimately be in a better position to influence, monitor and assess the effectiveness of Government’s fiscal policies.

This Citizens' Guide is presented in two parts. The first addresses general issues regarding the Federal Budget: what it is, how it is prepared, what financial resources are spent on and where the revenue comes from. This is followed by the second part which focuses specifically on the 2009 Budget - its background, contents and priorities - as well as options available to Government for coping with the challenges of the oil market downturn.

We hope that the Citizens' Guide will enable readers to have a better understanding of this important aspect of Government's work, and that it will put citizens in a better position to hold their government accountable.