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Nigeria: Stalemate Over Budget
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This Day (Lagos)
24 March 2008
Posted to the web 24 March 2008
Juliana Taiwo
Abuja
The National Assembly is yet to accede to President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua's request for the breakdown of the 2008 budget which was passed by the federal legislators two weeks ago.
THISDAY had reported last week that the president might withhold his assent from the harmonised Appropriation Bill because of the failure of the National Assembly to furnish him with the details of the budget.
Under the previous dispensation, the details were never made available to the President for assent as he usually signed a summarised document sent to him by the National Assembly. The details were usually made available thereafter.
A National Assembly source told THISDAY last night that the issue of "details" is causing some discomfort for the lawmakers.
"The President is asking for details. There is every tendency for the details to cause more harm because the budget of the National Assembly has not been resolved. There is the outstanding issue of parity between the two chambers. This issue has not been resolved so there is no way the President can get the details he is asking for now," a lawmaker said.
The National Assembly had cut down on the recurrent budget for Senate and the House of Representatives, with the Senators having N27 billion as against N34 billion initially contained in the budget they passed in February, while the House of Representatives had a budget of N47 billion as against N59 billion earlier passed.
The source added that there is also the outstanding issue of the N18 billion budget for Federal Road Maintenance Agency (FERMA) which the President is said to have objected to on the ground that the agency does not have the capacity to manage the funds.
"Even though the National Assembly has altered several areas of the budget in line with the President's observations, the FERMA case has not been sorted out. There is no way the details can be made known immediately," he said, expressing confidence that when the plenary session resumes, the issues would be thrashed out.
A presidency source confirmed the development last night, noting that the National Assembly only sent a one and a half page summary of the budget to the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Chief Michael Aondoakaa, for onward transmission to the President for endorsement.
Aondoakaa, the source said, refused forwarding the summarised version to the President, insisting rather on getting the comprehensive budget for "perusal" before advising the President on the next line of action.
"The Attorney General is insisting on getting the comprehensive budget to be sure that the things the President wants revised from the budget were really revised.
"We want to vet the items on the budget one by one to ensure that the reasons for the President sending it back to the National Assembly have been rectified. If what is not supposed to be there is inserted, the President will draw the attention of the legislators to it for necessary action and if what is supposed to be there is not there, the legislators' attention would be drawn to it too," the source said.
The source maintained that "the President would look very stupid before Nigerians to say the least if he says, 'I was only presented with the summary of the budget and I just signed. People would not take him serious.
"Anybody who is not comfortable with that should understand that the President too wants to protect his image both within and outside the country. He must be seen as doing the right thing otherwise no person would take him serious.
"If the correct budget is forwarded to the AGF today you can be sure that the President will sign the budget immediately. There is no reason for the President to further delay the signing but let the correct thing be sent.
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"For the interests of Nigerians the lawmakers should as a matter of urgency present the comprehensive budget to the President so that things can begin to move forward in Nigeria. Nigerians are in a hurry to see this government begin the implementation of programmes it pledged when it came on board."
The President had presented a budget of N2.53 trillion to the National Assembly on November 8, last year which is yet to be passed into law.
The National Assembly had passed an inflated figure of N2.898 trillion and submitted the bill to the President on February 20, 2008, but he withheld his assent because of his objections to some of the provisions.
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