President Muhammadu Buhari, on Wednesday last week, signed the N9.12 trillion 2018 Appropriation Bill into law. But, in his speech preceding signing of the document, he accused the National Assembly of massively distorting the budget proposals originally submitted to it by the executive arm for consideration and approval.
He alleged that the National Assembly inserted 6,403 fresh projects totalling N578 billion into the budget and made slashes of about N347 billion from the estimated cost of about 4,700 critical projects, some of which are the 2nd Niger Bridge and the Enugu International Airport Terminal.
The President further said most of the 6,403 projects inserted into the budgets were of less national priority and that they are already being handled by local and state governments.
After expressing serious reservations on most of the adjustments carried out on the budget by the National Assembly, he signed into law, while noting that it would be difficult for his government to implement the budget as passed by the National Assembly.
It is noteworthy to point out that, while Buhari presented a total budget figure of N8.6 trillion in November 2017, the lawmakers raised the budget by N500 billion to N9.12 trillion.
The President further accused the National Assembly of completely disregarding the fact that it is the executive arm of government that knows the focus of its policies and how to go about implementation so as to deliver the dividends of democracy to people
He noted that many of the new projects introduced by the National Assembly had been added to the budgets of most Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs), with no consideration for institutional capacity to execute them or the incremental recurrent expenditure that might be required.
The President lamented that while the National Assembly reduced a total of N347 billion allocation in the budget for 4,700 critical projects as presented by the executive, the lawmakers, in turn, introduced 6,403 new projects of their own, amounting to N578 billio
Buhari, who said he was compelled to append his signature to the document in the interest of Nigerians in order not to shut down the economy, explained that the desire of his administration is to return the country’s budgetary financial year to January-December annually.
He listed some of the projects affected by the budget reduction to include, the proposed provisions for some nationally/regionally strategic infrastructure projects such as counterpart funding for the Mambilla Power Plant, Second Niger bridge/ancillary roads, East-West road, Bonny-Bodo road, Lagos-Ibadan expressway and Itakpe-Ajaokuta rail project were cut by an aggregate of N11.5 billion.
Others are the provisions for some ongoing critical infrastructure projects in the FCT, Abuja especially major arterial roads and the mass transit rail project, were cut by a total of N7.5 billion; proposed provision for rehabilitation and additional security measures for the United Nations building by the FCT, Abuja which, he said, was cut by N3.9 billion from N4 billion to N100 million.
Buhari said this will make it impossible for the Federal Government to fulfill its commitment to the United Nations on this project.
The President also listed the provisions for various strategic interventions in the health sector such as the upgrade of some tertiary health institutions, transport and storage of vaccines through the cold chain supply system, provision of anti-retroviral drugs for persons on treatment, establishment of chemotherapy centres and procurement of dialysis consumables were cut by an aggregate amount of N7.45 billion as those affected in the budget reduction.
Others are the provision for security infrastructure in the 104 Unity Schools across the country, cut by N3 billion and the proposed provision for the Federal Government’s National Housing Programme, which was cut by N8.7 billion.
The President explained that a total of N5 billion was cut from the provisions for Pension Redemption Fund and Public Service Wage Adjustment at a time when the administration was working with Labour to address compensation-related issues.
The National Assembly, on its part, responded to all the allegations leveled against it by President Buhari.
.new telegraph
