The fire of controversy ignited by President Muhammadu Buhari’s outrage over the changes made to the 2018 budget by the National Assembly continued on Friday.
At a press conference organised to tackle the president, the National Assembly, in Abuja blamed the aides of the president for improper briefing on the budget.
Speaking at the press conference addressed by Abdullahi Sabi, spokesman of the Senate, and Abdulrazak Namdas, spokesman of the House of Representatives, the Legislature said if the aides of the president had briefed him properly, the president would not have expressed anger.
“It is our firm belief that if the President had been properly briefed by his appointees, he would not have raised most of the concerns that he did in his remarks at the budget signing.
“It is therefore inevitable for the legislature to give members of the public an insight into what transpired during the appropriations process and how we arrived at the decisions that are contained in the 2018 budget,” the legislators said.
The National Assembly reiterated that it was its right to make input into the budget, hence it had not done anything that was out of place.
The Legislature added that the amendment carried out on the budget as passed to it by the president was to correct the imbalance therein.
The legislators stated: “Adjustments and reductions in the locations, costs and number of projects approved were made in order to address geo-political imbalances that came with the Executive proposal…
“The introduction of new projects was done to ensure the promotion of the principles of Federal Character as contained in Section 14, subsection (3) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as amended which states that ‘the composition of the Government of the Federation or any of its agencies and the conduct of its affairs shall be carried out in such manner as to reflect the federal character of Nigeria…’
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“The number of projects had to be increased in order to give a sense of belonging to every geo-political zone of the country to ensure socio-economic justice, equity, fairness, and to command national loyalty.
“Within the context of the provisions of Sections 4, 80 and 81 of the Constitution, everything that the National Assembly has done is within its powers.
“Furthermore, Chapter 2 of the Constitution emphasizes the need for balance, inclusivity, and equity in the distribution of national resources. The annual budget, which symbolises the distribution of these resources must reflect the aforementioned values, which we swore to uphold.
“These Constitutional provisions, in addition to a recent Court judgment have affirmed the fact that the budget process is a ‘joint effort’ that must reflect the input of both the executive and the legislature — the latter being the closest representatives of the people. However, we are fully aware that the Executive has the exclusive responsibility to execute all parts of the Appropriation Act once it is signed into law.”
It would be recalled that President Muhammadu Buhari, while signing the budget on Wednesday, complained that the National Assembly carried out some changes without due consideration of the possibility of implementation.
He however said he would still have to make a supplementary budget to be able to address some of the projects affected by the changes carried out by the National Assembly on the budget.
