2016 BUDGET: Buhari Receives Details of 2016 Budget

PRESIDENT Mohammadu Buhari has received the details of the 2016 Appropriation Budget of the Federal Republic of Nigeria which was yesterday conveyed to the clerk of the National Assembly for its final journey to Presidency.

The details were received by the Chief of Staff to President Buhari, Abba Kyari on behalf of the President. The Senior Special Assistant, SSA to President on National Assembly matters, Senator Ita Enag alongside his colleague, Hon. Ismaila Kawu who brought the document to the Villa confirmed its receipt to State House Correspondents.

“The budget details have been transmitted to His Excellency, Mr. President today. The constitutional process begins thereafter. We have transmitted it to the Office of the President and the constitutional process of timing starts", he said.

The Chairman of the House committee on Appropriation, Hon. Abdulmunin Jibrin yesterday conveyed the details of the N6.06 trillion budget to the Clerk of the National Assembly, Salisu Maikasuwa at precisely 4:54pm stating that in line with procedures, the details will be picked from the office of the Clerk of the National Assembly by both Special Advisers to the President on National Assembly Matters, Senator Ita Enang and his House of Representatives counterpart, Abdulrahman Ismaila Kawu.

 

Similarly, his counterpart in the senate, Danjuma Goje also confirmed the development stating that the National Assembly has done the needful adding expectedly; the President will give his assent as soon as he goes through the details as he specified noting that the committee did a thorough job on the budget.

Goje assured that the 2016 budget passed by the National Assembly is implementable despite diverse interests from both the executive and the lawmakers.

“Yes we have just submitted the details of the 2016 appropriation bill to the Clerk of the National Assembly for onward transmission to the executive arm of government. We were able to put all our hands on the table and we have been able to do a lot of cleaning up exercise and working 15,16,17 hours every day and yes we have done the very best we can.

“But we continue to plead with Nigerians for their understanding. We do know what is going on, we share their pains. And we are also living in this country. We just want Nigerians to understand that this year, it’s a different budget. We have not had such a challenging budget before.”

 “Of course you know we have worked on the details and when I was coming in, I tried to answer some questions whether there were inputs? Of course, there were inputs of lawmakers on the details. You are faced with what the executive arm of government want or what the lawmakers want but the case of the appropriation committee is to find a middle ground between both.

“But I think the budget we just signed off with my colleague in the Senate, to the best of our knowledge, is an implementable budget and to a large extent, we believe that it properly aligns with the policy thrust of the government. Of course, we have done our own part, the budget will be transmitted to the president and so we keep our fingers crossed. The presidential advisers of the National Assembly will come over to pick the details, I have called both of them and there are aware that the details are ready”, he said.