President Buhari: I was compelled to sign the 2018 budget

Juliana Taiwo-Obalonye, Abuja

President Muhammadu Buhari has said that he was compelled to sign the the 2018 appropriation bill containing budget estimates as approved by the National Assembly into law in other not to keep the economy continuously on standstill.

This is even as he  regretted that the federal lawmakers made reductions amounting to N347 billion in the allocations to 4,700 projects submitted to them for consideration and introduced 6,403 projects of their own amounting to N578 billion.

President Buhari stated this at the budget-signing ceremony  Wednesday witnessed by Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo; Minister of Budget and National Planning, Udoma Udo Udoma; Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun; Senator Ibn N’alla, who represented Senate President Bukola Saraki; and Honorable Ado Doguwa. Who represented Speaker Yakubu Dogara.

According to the president the National Assembly tinkered with the budget of major projects which are critical, lamenting that it may be difficult, if not impossible, to implement with the reduced allocation.

Buhari said the remedy is to send supplementary or amendment budget soon, expressing the hope that when ready, the National Assembly would give it an expeditious consideration.

He signed the budget at about 12 noon on Wednesday inside his office at the presidential villa Abuja.

The National Assembly up the budget to N9.1 trillion from the N8.6 trillion estimates the President submitted to the Assembly on November 7, 2017.

The two chambers of the National Assembly passed the budget on May 16, six months after it was presented by the president.

The Assembly raised the total figure by N500 million.

They also increased the oil benchmark proposed by the executive from $45 to $51 per barrel.

The Assembly however, retained oil production volume proposed at 2.3 million barrels per day and an exchange rate at N305 to $1.

The budget as passed by the two chambers also has N530,421,368,624 as statutory transfer; N2,203,835,365,699 for debt service; N1,954,464,993,775 as fiscal deficit.




The passed budget was transmitted to the presidency for assent on May 25 through the Senior Special Assistant to the President on National Assembly (Senate), Ita Enang.

Enang, on Wednesday, took copies of the budget to the office of the president at about 11:35pm.

The President during the brief ceremony said, “As I mentioned during the presentation of the 2018 Appropriation Bill, we intend to use the 2018 Budget to consolidate the achievements of previous budgets and deliver on Nigeria’s Economic Recovery and Growth Plan 2017-2020.

“It is in this regard that I am concerned about some of the changes that the National Assembly has made to the budget proposals that I presented.

“The logic behind the constitutional direction that budgets should be proposed by the Executive is that, it is the Executive that knows and defines its policies and projects.

“Unfortunately, that has not been given much regard in what has been sent to me.  The National Assembly made cuts amounting to N347 billion in the allocations to 4,700 projects submitted to them for consideration and introduced 6,403 projects of their own amounting to N578 billion.

“Many of the projects cut are critical and may be difficult, if not impossible, to implement with the reduced allocation.  Some of the new projects inserted by the National Assembly have not been properly conceptualised, designed and costed and will therefore be difficult to execute.

“Furthermore, many of these new projects introduced by the National Assembly have been added to the budgets of most MDAs with no consideration for institutional capacity to execute them or the incremental recurrent expenditure that may be required.

“As it is, some of these projects relate to matters that are the responsibility of the States and Local Governments, and for which the Federal Government should therefore not be unduly burdened.”

Stay tuned as more info reach your way