The National Assembly has reacted to President Muhammadu Buhari’s outrage over the changes made to the 2018 budget which he signed into law on Wednesday.
The president who said he was constrained to sign the budget in order to save the economy of the country from going bad said the National Assembly was not mindful of the possibility of successful implementation of the projects affected.
But in reaction, the National Assembly declared that it carried out the changes because it had the constitutional right to do so.
The National Assembly said the budget as sent to it would not meet the needs of the generality of Nigerians hence the decision to amend it.
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Speaking in an interview on Channels Television programme, the spokesman of the House of Representatives, Abdulrazak Namdas, said:
“The makers of the Constitution never envisaged that when a proposal is laid before the National Assembly we should return it the way the President or the executive brought it.
“If that is the case, there would be no point bringing it to the National Assembly. But the makers of this constitution know that there must be a second opinion because they are elected representatives of the people.
“For us to tinker with the budget is our duty.”
The lawmaker added: “I am elected like any other 360 members of the House of Reps and 190 Senators. We represent consistencies. We know the issues on ground, so when we are working on this budget, you need to work to ensure that every part of this budget has fair share of the commonwealth of the nation.”
