For the umpteen time, President Muhammadu Buhari has turned down giving his assent to the 2016 budget, citing irregularities which needed to be corrected before his signature on the budget indicating its approval for the 2016 fiscal year.
This is the first time the Nigerian budget has passed through series of upheavals beginning with the process of planning the budget through to it disappearing into thin air and resurfacing and now being rejected by the President for various anomalies.
Nigerians continue to wonder when the budget will be put to use considering the fact that the first quarter of the year has expired and the Nigerian government is still on the embattled budget.
President Buhari has demanded adjustment to some areas which he considers are germane to his government, hence the continuous rejection.
A member of the House of Representatives, Abdurazaq Namdas, an All Progressives Congress (APC) member from Adamawa, told journalists on Thursday, April 21, 2016 that NASS is in possession of the letter from the Presidency, identifying areas which needed to be corrected.
He explained that the leadership of the two arms of the National Assembly would meet to streamline the issues presented by the President.
Though he failed to mention the areas that needed correction, he said they will be made known when it becomes necessary.
One of the challenges in the budget is the Lagos-Calabar rail project which was not in the original draft but was brought in by the Minister of Transport, Rotimi Amaechi, but the National Assembly discarded it saying Amaechi has no power to make budget proposals.
