At last, the National Assembly yesterday submitted the adjusted copy of the 2016 Appropriation Bill to the Presidency for further scrutiny and onward transmission to President Muhammadu Buhari for his assent.
New Telegraph, however, gathered that the reviewed budget which was earlier transmitted to the president at 1:10a.m. on Tuesday was “surprisingly” returned to the National Assembly about 12 noon due to some observations made by the president.
A Presidency source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, told New Telegraph that the document, which was again reviewed had left the custody of the National Assembly and was now with the executive arm.
The source said that members of the joint Appropriation Committee of the Senate and the House of Representatives met at an enlarged meeting with principal officers and the Minister of Budget and National Planning, Senator Udoma Udo Udoma. The meeting said to have lasted from 3p.m. till about 5:30p.m. yesterday, worked at the document especially the observations raised by the president before finally transmitting to him for assent.
The source said: “We have received a copy for preview. We are meeting with them about 3p.m. to 4p.m. because it was to be consensual working. Ministers will look at what they have done so that it will be agreed fully that this is what will be presented. We have received the preview copy, not the final copy that will be forwarded.”
The source also said that the assurance by the Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo, that the budget would be signed this week would be fulfilled. “The assurance will be kept because the vice president is the head of the economic team,” the source said.
On the changes carried out on the former document passed by the National Assembly, the Presidency source said that he was not privy to the changes done on the budget. “I’m not going to speak on what they changed. My job is to bring them (Executive and Legislature) together. My job does not entail knowing what is the content or no content,” he said. The source further told our correspondent that the controversial areas of the budget had been removed so that the budget could be signed into law.
“They are being eliminated one by one. And Nigerians will be happy when the budget is passed. They are being eliminated and reduced. It will be a budget for Nigeria made by Nigerians,” the source assured. On the report that the padding in the budget has been reduced from N500 billion to N70 billion, the source said: “I don’t even know which one is padding. I am not aware of N500 billion padding, not to talk of reducing it to N70 billion.
“We want to make sure that it is done properly so as to keep each other’s powers intact. The executive has its powers; very enormous. The small powers of the legislature is preserved. So in matters like these, it is the legislature that is the boss. So, we the executive have to respond. We are the ones begging them to pass budget.”
All attempts to get some of the principal officers and the review committee members to confirm or deny the story proved abortive as some of them switched off their phones while those whose phones were active ignored calls and refused to respond to text messages. But a source privy to the budget imbroglio confirmed to New Telegraph that the budget was actually submitted to the president but he refused signing it due to some issues he was not comfortable with.
“The budget got to the Villa (State House) at 1:10a.m. and Mr. President went through it early this morning and still had some issues with some of the figures. I cannot tell you exactly what it was but I think the insertions made by the lawmakers were not significantly altered. “You know the lawmakers had moved some allocations for key projects that are dear to the president to other areas especially to their constituency projects.
Of course, they have changed some but I believe Mr. President is not satisfied with the reconciliation they did. I think this is one of the reasons it was returned,” the source explained. Although, the source could not mention any definite amount, New Telegraph investigations revealed that the N500 billion diversion of funds to constituency projects was “what is given the president headache”
A lawmaker, who is not a member of the review committee but a member of the standing committee on appropriation, told our correspondent in confidence that the “president want a situation whereby the insertions should be reduced to about N50 billion before he will sign the budget”.
According to him, the reviewed copy, which was sent Tuesday morning did not cut substantially from the N500 billion. Meanwhile, as at the time of filing this report, it was learnt that the leadership of the National Assembly was meeting with the executive in the Aso Rock Villa, to take final decision on the budget. When the Senate spokesman, Aliyu Sabi, was contacted for his comment, he declined to say anything on the budget, saying that he had not been briefed at all on the matter.
