President Buhari was forced to sign 2018 budget, Aide reveals

macfranc007 June 28, 2018 Nigeria News today & Breaking news ▷ Read Naija news 24/7 Jerrywright Ukwu

- The conversation on the 2018 Budget signed recently is still ongoing

- Kawu Samaila, an aide to the president, sheds more light on the document which sparked controversy after its passage

- Samaila is the special assistant to President Muhammadu Buhari on National Assembly matters (House of Representatives)

Kawu Samaila, an aide to the president, has thrown more light on the recently signed 2018 budget which sparked controversy after its passage.

Samaila, who is the special assistant to President Muhammadu Buhari on National Assembly matters (House of Representatives), spoke during an interview with Premium Times.

According to him, the president was forced to sign the budget due to some circumstances.

He said: “We are practising constitutional democracy, the executive and the parliament are the products of the constitution and they all derive their powers from the constitution. This budget has been in the National Assembly since November. We anticipated having the budget ready by January.

“We wanted to change the budget cycle but unfortunately, the budget spent about seven months in the National Assembly. If the president had returned the budget, it would have taken more time before it reaches him again. So, he decided to sign the budget as it was presented and use other mechanisms such as supplementary budget or virement to correct the anomalies.”

When reminded that the National Assembly has the power to make laws and the budget is also a law, Samalia advocated for dialogue between the executive and parliament whenever appropriation comes up.

His words: “Nobody is saying they are not exercising their constitutional powers, it is part of their job. The same constitution that gave the National Assembly power of appropriation is the same constitution that gave the executive powers to propose to the National Assembly. The proposal will emanate from the executive and constitutionally, the president is the chief economic manager of Nigeria.

“Therefore, he must have the knowledge of how to manage the economy; how much is coming, how much is going, where and what he can do to save the economy. Therefore, there must be talks between the executive and parliament whenever appropriation comes up.”

Asked if he thinks the president gets the maximum support he requires from the National Assembly, Samaila said it is not expected that both arms of government will have disagreeements in the course of their work.

“You cannot expect the parliament to always be on the same page with the executive at all times. Whenever there is an argument, people shouldn’t see it as a rift,” he added.

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President Buhari who signed the 2018 budget on Wednesday, June 20, said that the National Assembly made cuts amounting to N347 billion in the allocation to 4,700 projects submitted to it for consideration.

He also said that 6,403 projects were injected, amounting to N578 billion, stressing that many of the project cuts were critical and may be difficult, if not impossible, to implement with the reduced allocation.

He however promised to send a supplementary budget to cushion the effect of the cuts.

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