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Tag: 2016 Budget

  • No rift over 2016 budget – Information Minister

    No rift over 2016 budget – Information Minister

    The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, has said that there is no rift between the executive and legislative arm of government over the passage of the 2016 budget.

    Mohammed said this on Thursday when he paid a visit to the Corporate Headquarters of the Leadership Newspapers in Abuja.

    “On the passage of the budget, I want to clear the misconception. There is absolutely no rift between the executive arm of government and legislative arm of government.

    “It is not true that the president has refused to assent to the budget. The fact remains that it (budget) is not even before him.

    “The practice really is that when the budget is approved like that, there is what we call headline figure that is approved, then, it will take a few days for the National Assembly to throw up the details.’’

    The minister said it was the original copy of budget that would be taken to the president after the necessary correction.

    He also said that there was no setback in the budget, adding that the Ministry of Budget and National Planning was working closely with the National Assembly to ensure hitch-free passage of the budget.

    The minister said that the signing of the budget by President Muhammadu Buhari would reflate the economy and uplift millions of Nigerians out of abject poverty.

    He said that the budget would focus on infrastructure development which would in turn create jobs for unemployed Nigerians and wealth for workers in the construction industry.

    “It is a budget of social inclusion. It is a budget that everybody is included’’.

    Mohammed said that there was N500 billion provision for social intervention programmes targeted at employing 500,000 graduates, to be trained as teachers and deployed to primary schools.

    He said the programmes also aimed at empowering 370,000 non-graduates such as artisans and technicians.

    “It targets at training one million people such as farmers, market women, traders and entrepreneurs as well as giving them loan to start off.

    “It aims at giving one meal to 4.5 million pupils from class 1 to 3 per day. It is also aimed at giving N5,000 to vulnerable Nigerians such as widows, aged people and disabled people in the rural areas.’’

    The minister said the social intervention programmes also targeted at providing bursary and scholarship for students studying science, technology and engineering.

     

  • Buhari vows to scrutinize 2016 Budget before assent

    Buhari vows to scrutinize 2016 Budget before assent

    President Muhammadu Buhari on Thursday vowed to scrutinize the 2016 Appropriation bill before assenting the bill.

    The National Assembly that passed the bill last week only forwarded the bill without its details.

    When the President insisted that he will not sign the bill into law until he receives the details, some National Assembly members pointed out that it will not be out of place to sign the bill into law without the details.

    They cited instances under former Presidents Olusegun Obasanjo and Late Umaru Musa Yar’Adua.

    But Buhari on Thursday in Washington DC replied them that he will thoroughly scrutinize the passed bill before assenting to it.

    He spoke during a meeting with the United States Secretary of State, Mr. John Kerry.

    According to him, in view of the controversial alteration and padding of the budget proposals, he needed to review the appropriation bill to be certain that its contents tallied with the authentic budget proposal presented to the National Assembly.

    “Some bureaucrats removed what we put in the proposal and replaced it with what they wanted. I have to look at the bill that has been passed by the National Assembly, ministry by ministry, to be sure that what has been brought back for me to sign is in line with our original submission,” the President said.

    Declaring that his administration will continue to vigorously prosecute its war against corruption, President Buhari sought and received an assurance from Mr. Kerry that the United States Government will facilitate the repatriation of all stolen Nigerian funds found within the American banking system.

    “It will greatly help our country if you assist us to recover all our stolen funds which we can establish to be within your financial system,” the President told Mr. Kerry.

    Acknowledging that the United States has been of great help to his administration in the retraining and re-equipping of the Nigerian Armed Forces that has resulted in the significant success already achieved against Boko Haram, President Buhari said that the Federal Government was now working very hard to restore full normalcy in the North Eastern states.

    “Boko Haram no longer holds any local government area. We are reconstructing damaged facilities and preparing the police to take over and reassert civilian control over areas affected by the insurgency,” the President told Mr. Kerry.

    Responding, the Secretary of State said that he has been told that the stolen Nigerian funds were in “billions of dollars”.

    “It’s not easy to hide that amount of money and we are pretty good in tracing them,” Mr Kerry assured President Buhari.

    He said that relevant United States Government Officials will meet with the Chairman of Nigeria’s Economic and Financial Crimes Commission to discuss further cooperation in that regard.

    Mr. Kerry applauded the Buhari Administration’s success in rolling back the Boko Haram insurgency, saying that the United States will continue to give Nigeria all possible support to ensure that the terrorist sect is finally eliminated as a threat to national and regional security.

    The Secretary of State also praised President Buhari’s clear order that Nigeria’s Armed Forces must show greater regard for the human rights of persons in the theatre of operations against Boko Haram.

  • 2016 budget has lots of omission – Jibrin

    2016 budget has lots of omission – Jibrin

    The House of Representatives has said that it took time to align the 2016 budget with the policy thrust of President Muhammadu Buhari’s Administration.

    The lawmaker also said it would be wrong to say that the National Assembly is delaying the assent of the President by not sending the details of the budget on time, adding that It’s a normal tactic for the NASS to send the appropriation bill to the President and the details later.

    Speaking with the media Wednesday, the Chairman of the House Committee on Appropriation, Hon. Abdulmumin Jibrin said that the 2016 budget “had a lot of omissions” and that the APC – headed administration’s first budget ” is the most difficult budget we’ve ever dealt with.”

    Jibrin debunked reports that the National Assembly is delaying the President’s assent to the 2016 budget by not sending the details. According to him, the details would be sent within the next week or two.

    He said the National Assembly should be applauded for the propitious passage of the 2016 budget in spite of its many challenges.

    “We in the National Assembly believe that this is the most difficult budget we have ever dealt with. Of course you all recall that the MTEF came very late, we accepted it, and we dealt with it. The budget itself came late; we accepted it and we dealt with it. Even while we were dealing with all

    The Lawmaker said that there were a lot of omissions in the 2016 budget and that Budgetary allocations were not in tandem with policy thrust of the Federal Government.

    “The budget has had a lot of challenges which has to do with multiple budget details and of course, Ministers, heads of MDAs coming to disown their budgets. There were other key omission in the 2016 budget that the National Assembly had to deal with.

    ” In some instances, we discovered that budgetary allocation are  not in tandem with the policy thrust of the federal Government which is part of the responsibility of the Appropriation committee to look into that and try to align the allocations to match the policy thrust of government.

    “And of course we saw a lot of omissions, inadequate provision for personnel across board.

    “I’ve explained to you severally the case of Prisons ration that was reduced far below the federal Government approved rates. We talked about the NYSC where only 210 thousand corps members captured as against 260,000. All these we did our best to see how to address these issues and a lot also could not be addressed.”

    He said other areas the National Assembly intervened was to align the budget with the Security thrust, anti- corruption drive and economic diversification Programmes of the government

    Jibrin said for all the National Assembly did, the Presidency should be grateful, adding that in the next week or two, the details of the budget will be with the President.

    “I think if they’re not thanking us, they cannot throw stones at the National Assembly.”

  • Buhari still awaiting 2016 Budget details – Presidency

    Buhari still awaiting 2016 Budget details – Presidency

    The Presidency on Tuesday raised the alarm that President Muhammadu Buhari was still waiting for the details of the 2016 Appropriation bill almost a week after it was passed by the National Assembly.

    A presidency source who does not want his name in print, said that the President is anxious to assent the bill.

    The delay, the source said, is slowing down quick implementation of government programmes contained in the budget.

    He said: “The President has just received the transmission of the Appropriation Bill (2016 Budget) from the National Assembly and is very anxious to sign it into law, but the National Assembly only sent in the highlights without the details of the budget.

    “As result, the President has been handicapped in signing the Bill because he does not know what is contained in the details and what adjustments the National Assembly must have made to the proposal sent to them.

    “Although he is anxious to sign the document so that implementation of the provisions could start immediately and ease the tension in the economy and polity, he is afraid he may later discover, when the details are sent, that what is contained therein is not implementable.

    “He wishes the National Assembly could send in the details speedily so that it could be considered for assent.

    According to him, Ministers are also eager that the budget be signed so they could start implementing their programmes,

    He added: “But they are unable to push the President to sign what has been transmitted because they also do not know what is contained in the details.

    “They are particularly worried that the year is gradually aging and the provision of the law in respect of spending the previous year’s budget is not helping matters because of the low Capital provision for 2015.

    “Because of the low provision made last year for capital expenditure, spending 50% of that provision for the first half of this year will make no impact on provision of infrastructure.

    He also said that the Budget Office cannot work on the Budget for implementation because it is the details, and not the highlights, that they convert into implementable templates for the respective MDAs.

    He said: “This development confirms speculations that the National Assembly either did not complete work on the budget or are playing politics with the documents which affects the life of both the country and its citizens.

    “The National Assembly may just have passed the bill to pass the buck to the executive and escape the wrath of the public which was gradually suspecting it of sabotage.” He stated.

  • Cleric predicts rapid economic growth for Nigeria

    Cleric predicts rapid economic growth for Nigeria

    A cleric, Prophet Christopher Owolabi, on Monday predicted an aggressive improvement for the nation’s economy, following the passage of the 2016 budget by the National Assembly.

    Owolabi gave this prophecy at a special Church service and prayer to mark this year’s Easter in Omu-Aran, Irepodun local government area of Kwara.

    The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the cleric is the Prophet in-Charge of the Christ Apostolic Church, Ori-Oke Irapada, along Omu-Aran-Iloffa expressway, Omu-Aran.

    He called on Nigerians to continue to intensify prayers for divine protection, wisdom and guidance, especially for those at the helm of the nation’s affairs.

    Owolabi, who also predicted two-term tenure of office for President Muhammadu Buhari under the All Progressive Congress (APC), urged leaders in the country to close ranks for progress.

    He advised politicians, especially the leadership of the ruling APC to be more prayerful in order to remain united in the handling of national issues.

    Owolabi, however, warned that the expected development for the nation needed a collective responsibility of all stakeholders, through prayers and support, to become a reality.

    The cleric described the present administration’s efforts towards re-invigorating the nation’s economy; especially the fight against corruption and other vices as worthwhile.

    Owolabi also urged Nigerians to reflect on the significance of Easter and desist from involving themselves in ungodly acts.

     

  • National Assembly slashes 2016 budget by N17b

    National Assembly slashes 2016 budget by N17b

    The Senate Wednesday passed the 2016 controversial budget with a reduction of over N17 billion.

    President Muhammadu Buhar had on December 22, 2015 presented to the joint session of the National Assembly Appropriation Bill of N6, 077,680,000,000 for consideration and passage into law.

    But the Senate passed N6, 060,677,358,227 as the 2016 budget, a reduction of N0, 017,002,641,773.

    Chairman, Senate Committee on Appropriation, Senator Mohammed Danjuma Goje who presented the report of his committee noted that in view of the revenue and general economic challenges confronting the country, “the committee, has in a landmark decision, not witnessed since the advent of the present democratic dispensation in 1999, reduced the size of the aggregate expenditure and consequently reduced the total recurrent, deficit and borrowing plan.”

    Part of the highlights of the budget as passed included  Aggregate Expenditure N6,060,677,358,227; Statutory  Transfers  N351,370,000.000 (retained); Debt Service N1,475,320,000,000 (retained); Recurrent Expenditure reduced from N2,648,600,000,000 to N2,646,389,236,196; Capital Expenditure also reduced from N1,845,540,000,000 to N1,587,598,122,,031; Fiscal Deficit N2,204,936,925,711.16 while Deficit/GDP is 2.14%.

    Senator Goje arrived at the highlights after due consideration of the submissions by sub-committees and interaction with several stakeholders.

    The Senate adopted a bench mark price of $38 per barrel on crude oil based on the recommendation of the Senate on the Medium Term Expenditure Framework/ Fiscal Strategy Paper (MTEF/FSP)

    The same benchmark of $38pb adopted by the Senate was also proposed by the Executive.

    The Executive proposals of crude oil production of 2.2 million barrels per day and an exchange rate of N197 to $1 were also adopted

    The committee observed that the late presentation of the budget affected its timely passage.

    The committee also said that the 2016 Appropriation Bill, after its presentation to the National Assembly, was seen to be “fraught with some inconsistencies from ministries, departments and agencies, given the subsequent reference by them to different versions of the budget.”

    Goje who said that the inconsistencies in the fiscal document were also noticed at the level of the sub-committees, described them as “strange and goes against proper budgetary procedures and processes with attendant implications.”

    The committee chairman told the Senate that they observed that the available revenue for appropriation was grossly inadequate to meet the huge demand of MDAs to prosecute needed programmes for national development across all spheres in the economy.

    Goje said, “The 2016 (Appropriation) Bill seeks to stimulate the economy by the recurrent expenditure as compared to the capital component at a ratio of 30:70% is still very high. This takes away from the infrastructure-stimulus funding that the country so desperately needs for development.”

    He noted that the Appropriation Bill contained a number of omissions particularly in the area of personnel cost.

    Goje added that “though the Appropriation Committee has filled some of the gaps, there are many outstanding cases which could raise serious concern in the course of the year.”

    The committee recommended among others that subsequent budgets should be submitted in strict compliance with the provisions of the Fiscal Responsibility Act to enable the National Assembly conduct proper engagement and to conclude the budget in good time.

    The committee also said that there should be proper engagement in future between the Budget Office and MDAs on the budget contents in order to avoid  what appeared to be a disconnect between them in the processing of the budget proposals.

    Goje specifically referred to a situation where some MDAs disowned their budget before the Appropriation Committee.

    Some statutory transfer allocations included National Judicial Council N70b; Niger Delta Development Commission N41,050b, Universal Basic Education N77,110b; National Assembly N115b; Public Complaint Commission N2b, Independent National Electoral Commission N45b and National Human Rights Commission N1210b.

    Debt Service: Domestic debts N1, 307,400,000,000 while N54, 480,000,000 was allocated for Foreign Debts service.

    Presidential Amnesty Programme stipends and allowances of 30,000 Niger Delta ex-militants was allocated N7,875,000,000, Presidential Amnesty Programme operational cost N1,834,149,261 while N10,290,850739 was voted for Presidential Amnesty Programme reintegration of transformed ex-militants.

    Other allocations Ministry of Agriculture N46,175,963,859; Ministry of Defence N130,864,439,542; Ministry of Education N35,433,487,466; Ministry of Health N28,650,342,987, Ministry of Information and Culture N6,071,503,956; Ministry of Interior N61,713,279496; Ministry of Justice N879,736,744; Ministry of Solid Mineral Dev N7,332,623,257; Ministry of Niger Delta N19,440,328,551; Ministry of Transportation N188,674,679,674; Ministry of  Works, Power and Housing N422,964,928,495.

    Senate President, Abubakar Bukola Saraki said that what is unique about the exercise of passing the budget was that for once there was no bickering over benchmark.

     

  • Senate passes 2016 budget

    Senate passes 2016 budget

    The 2016 federal budget was Wednesday passed by the Senate.

    The lawmakers approved a total of N6.060trn made up of N1.587trn capital expenditure of the budget and the recurrent expenditure of N2.646.3trn.

    The sum of N351.37bn was approved for statutory transfers, N1.475.3trn for Debt Service, and N2.2trn for Fiscal deficit.

     

     

     

  • Senate receives 2016 budget, AGF audit reports

    Senate receives 2016 budget, AGF audit reports

    The Senate on Monday received the 2016 budget and the 2014 Auditor-General of the Federation audit reports.

    Chairman, Senate Committee on Appropriation, Senator Mohammed Danjuma Goje, presented the 2016 budget report marked “2016 Appropriation Bill, 2016 (SB.212).

    The report was not debated and no date was assigned for its debate and passage into law.

    Insiders however said that the budget is likely to be passed Wednesday.

    Chairman, Senate Committee on Rules and Business, Senator Babajide Omoworare, had assured on Monday that the controversial 2016 budget report would be laid on Tuesday.

    The Osun East lawmaker said that the report blights in the fiscal document had been cleaned up by the National Assembly.

    Also, the Senate received the annual report of the Auditor-General of the Federation.

    Senate Leader, Senator Mohammed Ali Ndume presented the report entitled “Accounts of the Federation of Nigeria.”

    Ndume asked the Senate to “receive the Annual  Report of the Auditor-General for the Federation on the accounts of the Federation of Nigeria for the year ended 31st December, 2014 in accordance with section 85(2) and (5) of the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended).

    The weighty report, submitted to the National Assembly by the Auditor-General of the Federation, Mr. Samuel Ukura, indicted several ministries, departments and agencies including the National Assembly management.

    The report claimed that more than N3.3 trillion was misappropriated by the MDAs and the National Assembly.

    Chairman, Senate Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Senator Aliyu Sabi Abdullahi, had assured that the Senate will investigate every bit of the audit report.

    Abdullahi told reporters in Abuja that consideration of the audit report is part of the statutory function of the parliament.

    He said that the exposures in the audit report are queries raised by the Auditor General which cannot be conclusively classified as fraudulent acts until proven by investigation.

    He added that the queries raised in the report by the Auditor General are not necessarily indictment.

    The Senate Committee on Public Account, he said, would dig into the report, invite those queried to ask for clarification before coming to conclusion.

    He said that the Eight Senate had elected to make the difference by painstakingly considering the report to establish the veracity of the report.

    He asked Nigerians to wait and see what the Senate would make out of the audit report.

    He said: “The Eight Senate has chosen to be different as we have stated severally since we came on board and for which we came up with our legislative agenda to make us different from the past because we are in the season and period of change and we want to seriously key in to that.

    “Along that line, you could see the courage that we have to make some differences from what has obtained in the past and to this note, we have passed reports of some committees like the Treasury Single Account (TSA), which is a classical example.

    “Through that exercise, we were able to save the country, N7billion. There are similar works that has been done.

    “We want to say that since we have chosen to be different, we urge Nigerians to wait and see what we will make out of the investigation.

    “Without holding forth for the past assemblies, I want to say that it is not as if they did not do anything about the past Audit Reports.

    “But perhaps they have not taken their action up to the scale that would have made a huge impact that people want to see. If that is what the Auditor – General means, I agree with him.

    “The Auditor – General is raising a query, it is not an indictment. So when he raises his queries, the essence of the Public Accounts Committee is to invite those parties involved in the query and through the instruments of their own work, investigate all the issues by seeking for clarification and at the end of the day, where they have infractions, or infringement on certain procedures, they met out appropriate sanctions as stipulated by extant rules and regulations.

    “When there is a process and someone has done one part, until we conclusively finish that process, it will be wrong to accuse anyone of being guilty.

    “These are administrative procedures and the Senate President, Bukola Saraki, has made it clear that we would take oversight functions far more serious than what it used to be in the past.

    “If oversight functions are carried out properly, some of these queries that we talk about will begin to reduce because the essence is to see infractions before they happen.

    “We as lawmakers will stop it before another institution discovers the anomalies and bring them to our notice.

    “These are the powers of the National Assembly through oversight functions. We are committed to ensuring that a thorough job is done this time.

    “We have demonstrated our capacity to match our words with our actions. Wait and see, it is a promise and we have four years to prove that we mean business.”

    Also on Tuesday the Senate received report of the conference committee on Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF).

    Chairman, Senate Committee on Finance, Senator John Owan Enoh prayed the Senate to receive the report of the conference committee on the 2016, 2017 and 2018 Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) and Fiscal Strategy Paper (FSP).

    The consideration and adoption of the MTEF and FSP pave the way for the passage of the Appropriation Bill.

    After the receipt of the reports, the Senate adjourned plenary in honour of a member of the House of Representatives, Hon. Musa Baba Onwana, Nasarawa/Toro Federal Constituency, Nasarawa State, who died last week.

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  • Again National Assembly fails to lay 2016 budget

    Again National Assembly fails to lay 2016 budget

     

     

    The two chambers of the National Assembly Thursday reneged on their promise to lay the 2016 budget preparatory to its consideration and passage on Tuesday.

    It became clear that the budget might not be laid as promised when it was not listed in the Order Paper of the Senate and House of Representatives.

    Chairman, Senate Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Senator Aliyu Sabi Abdullahi, had told reporters that the budget would be laid Thursday.

    That was not to be as no mention of the Appropriation Bill was made during Senate plenary Thursday.

    At a joint press briefing by the two chambers, the lawmakers claimed that the need to “sit down and check what we call data cleansing and integration” made them to back down on the promise to lay the fiscal document.

    Abdullahi who was the first to speak at the briefing also said that the two Appropriation Committees of the Senate and the House of Representatives “must integrate, harmonise and consolidate” the budget before it could be laid.

    He described the budget as “something very technical and tedious and if you recall, this is a very voluminous document.”

    The National Assembly, he said, does not “want to rush just because we want to keep to a promise that Wednesday the budget must be passed.”

    He said that what the National Assembly owe Nigerians is a budget that is implementable, a budget that will kick-start the reflection of our national economy; a budget that will help to create jobs and therefore stimulate our economic rebirth.

    He added that “for those of you who know statistics, in everything you do, you must give freedom for degree of error.”

    Abdullahi said that the entire process of laying and passing the budget would be completed next week, “God willing.”

    Chairman, House of Representatives Committee on Media, Hon. Abdulrazak Namdas, blamed the failure to lay the budget as promised no the need to pass a budget that will be “applauded by the entire country than to rush and make some few mistakes.”

    Namdas who pleaded the understanding of Nigerians added that as the first Appropriation Bill of the 8th National Assembly, “we cannot afford to make any mistake.

    Abdullahi said, “You will recall we promised we promised Nigerians that by today 17th March, we will pass the 2016 appropriation. Thursday, I also confirmed to you that today, that same appropriation bill will be laid, bearing any last minute technical hitches or otherwise.

    “We are here to let you know that as of today, we are unable to lay the 2016 appropriation bill and thus we are hoping next week that process will be completed.

    “When I briefed you, I recalled you were asking if the passage will be completed by next week. And we said ‘yes’ when you lay the budget the next thing is for you to discuss the budget and get it passed. The two activities will be carried out next week God’s willing.

    “Let me pre-empt you because I know you will be saying perhaps we have failed to keep to our promise. As far as we are concerned, we have not failed.

    “What is happening is the seriousness with which we take the 2016 appropriation. It’s such that we cannot also afford to make errors that will become very costly to this nation.

    “We have finished all necessary work within the context of the various committees. But remember when you do the paper work, you have to also get people who will sit down and check what we call data cleansing and integration; that is the two Appropriation Committees must integrate.

    “That is the essence of what you call harmonisation. This is something very technical and tedious and if you recall, this is a very voluminous document. So, in our own understanding, we don’t want to rush just because we want to keep to a promise that today that budget must be passed.

    “What we owe to Nigerians is a budget that is implementable; a budget that will kick-start the reflection of our national economy.

    “It’s a budget that will help to create jobs and therefore stimulate our economic rebirth. So, that is what we have seen as a key objective and I want to assure you that for those of you who know statistics, in everything you do, you must give freedom for degree of error.

    “And plus or minus five is the basic standard that I’m aware of. Within this context, if next week, we will be able to take this, then within that margin of error, the National Assembly is still on course.

    “We call on Nigerians to understand that we are as eager as you to get this budget out but at the same time, we owe you a duty to ensure that the budget that will be out is one that is implementable.

    “I think those handling this assignment are having sleepless night just to ensure that we do a thorough job.”

    Asked to confirm whether the reported errors in the budget are partly responsible for not laying the budget Thursday, Abdullahi said

    “I never alluded to the fact that there was such errors that you are referring to. What we said is data integration and consolidation, which means at the end of the day, the Appropriation Bill has to come in the same form to be laid in the two chambers.”

    He added, “The House of Representatives worked as an independent chamber, the Senate worked as an independent chamber. We came back again at that level of the Appropriation Committee to harmonise.

    “What we have tried to do is to work together all along. But at the last end of the work, that harmonisation must be done very thoroughly. So, this is not a simple job because they have certain things that they believe should be done.

    “We have certain things here that should be done and we must meet and agree on one position. That is the essence of this exercise.

    “Having done that on paper, those who will go on to the computer and do the punching, we must give them time. That is where the errors can come in. And we don’t want to come back here and start telling you that there is a printer’s devil.

    “Let me also reiterate that as official spokesmen of the two chambers, we are not here to corroborate rumours, neither are we here to lend credence to rumours.

    “Those who have their facts know where they got their facts. And I think it is in their own right that you go to them to make explanations.

    “Based on all the work that has been done, I don’t think I have an official copy (of the budget) because that work is still to be completed.

    So, you wait. When we lay our budget that document that is laid, when you have any issue with it you relate to us and then we shall answer the questions. But for now, please go to the source. “

    On whether his use of the words ‘God willing’ and ‘hopefully’ meant that he is not sure if the budget will be laid and passed next week.

    He said, “I’m a Muslim and in everything I do, I don’t think if I say God willing there is anything wrong with that.

    And if I say ‘hopefully’ remember if I am the one to give it to you and it’s in my pocket, then I am talking with that guarantee.

    “This is work process; we are working as a team. So, in a team work, you must hope.  We are saying that we are hoping, we have absolute confidence in the capacity and willingness of those people doing this work to do their work.

    “And they are there doing their work. What is important for us to understand is: there is nothing wrong in setting a target. The essence of setting a target is for you to have something in which you will be working and hoping to achieve. And so, you keep your work rate along that line.

    “These people working are human beings, they have families. If you ask somebody to do a work, he is supposed to finish it in two hours and something crops us that will not allow him to finish it in another 30 minutes, is there anything wrong with that?

    “Let’s look at it from this perspective: the budget is a very serious matter. And I don’t think we are here to joke. We are here to make sure we have a budget that is implementable.

    “And by saying a budget that is implementable, it does not allude to the fact that the budget brought to us is battered.

    “What is important is that as legislators, we have a responsibility to appropriate for this country because we are representing different constituencies. And so, everybody must come with the lenses of the problem from the constituency in which he’s representing.”

    “So, what we are saying is that the legislature has received a document from the Executive. It has become the property of the legislature. And we are working on it.

    “At the end of the day, when we finish and hand it over to them, that is when you can decide whether we have done a thorough job or not.

    “We are not a rubber stamp. And so, the document coming from the Executive must go through proper scrutiny. And we are praying and hoping that by next week, we will be able to complete it.”

  • Passage of 2016 budget now Thursday

    Passage of 2016 budget now Thursday

    The 2016 budget will not be passed Thursday as promised by the National Assembly, it was learnt Wednesday.

    Rather, the fiscal document will be laid on the floors of the Senate and the House of Representatives by the Appropriation Committees of the two chambers.

    The Appropriation Committee of the two chambers had at a media briefing promised that the N6.08 trillion 2016 budget presented by President Muhammadu Buhari on December 22, 2015 would be passed Thursday.

    The new date of March 17 came after efforts to pass the budget on February 25, 2016 failed.

    Following the promise, a copy of the 2016 budget would have been laid Wednesday preparatory for its consideration and passage Thursday.

    Chairman, Senate Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Senator Aliyu Sabi Abdullahi, however told reporters in Abuja that the 2016 budget will be laid today.

    Abdullahi who is also a member of the Appropriation Committee, noted that after laying the budget, what would remain would be merely administrative work.

    Anxiety mounted Wednesday following the failure of the Appropriation Committee to lay the budget as promised before Senate adjourned.

    There was also no mention of the budget during Senate plenary.

    Abdullahi said, “God willing we are laying the budget Thursday. I can assure Nigerians that the budget will be laid Thursday. That tells you that a lot of work has been completed on the budget.

    Abdullahi noted that Nigerians are aware of “the back and front of the budget” saying that by scheduling March 17 to pass the budget, they merely set target for themselves.

    He added that members of the National Assembly have taken their time to work on the document because they wanted implementable budget.

    Abdullahi said, “All is almost set for the laying of the 2016 budget tomorrow (today) in the senate chamber as we have promised Nigerians and with that,  one or two processes that are required will take place and we will have our budget as promised.

    “This has put to rest any suspicion of what is happening. I am here to inform you that tomorrow 17th, God sparing our lives; the 2016 budget would be laid by the Chairman of the Appropriation Committee.

    “We are laying the budget tomorrow; that means that every little work that needed to be done with respect to getting that budget as an appropriation has been done. Literally passing the budget tomorrow means that beyond laying it we will discuss it, by taking it clause by clause and give it the loud voice that would proclaim its passage.

    “When a target is set, it is to allow you to work very hard to achieve the target. By virtue of the fact that the budget would be laid tomorrow, it shows that we had worked so hard to get to that point.

    “The rest after laying the budget is merely administrative. As far as we are concerned, in line with the legislative procedure, by laying the budgettomorrow, it is as good as we have passed the budget.

    “What remains is for us to go through one or two things as a procedure. We have done very well by ensuring that the budget would be laidtomorrow. There are lots of back and fore with respect to the budget.

    “We are not unmindful about the date set for the passage, but we want to give Nigerians a budget that is acceptable, implementable, and that will actually drive the key policies of this government with respect to the change agenda.

    “For the budget to be laid tomorrow, that means that there is concurrence; all members of the appropriation committee are satisfied, everybody that has a responsibility.

    “Every member of the committee has appended his signature on the budget and by tomorrow when the budget is laid, Nigerians will know that we have done well.”

    Also alluding to the fact that the budget will no longer be passed today scheduled, Senate Leader, Senator Mohammed Ali Ndume informed that the budget would be passed on Tuesday March 22, 2016.

    Ndume also said that a clean copy of the budget would be transmitted to President Buhari on Wednesday, March 23, 2016.

    It is expected that after laying it, Senators would be given copies of the fiscal document to read in detail before its possible passage on March 22, 2016.