By Iheanacho Nwosu and Kemi Yesufu, Abuja
The Presidency, last night, distanced itself from the reports that the 2016 appropriation bill being cleaned up has, again, run into troubled waters.
The executive arm of government declared that the budget review committees, drawn from the Presidency and the National Assembly were doing their best to complete their assignment of correcting the grey areas which will be submitted to President Muhammadu Buhari for assent in the next few days.
Special Adviser to the President on National Assembly Matters, Senator Ita Enang, told Daily Sun that there was no truth in reports that the budget had been returned to the National Assembly for the second time.
“It is not true. Everything is moving according to plans,” Enang said. Another presidential aide, who declined to be named said the committees have only been working hard to reconcile their differences.
“The two committees are meeting to take a common position on all the areas. There is nothing like returning the budget to anybody. Those saying that are ignorant of what is in place.”
Enang’s clarification sought to correct the rumour that President Buhari had queried some amendments made to the budget and ordered that it be returned to the National Assembly .
The report was sparked by an alleged meeting between principal officers of the National Assembly and members of the review committee at the Senate wing of the National Assembly. The meeting reportedly lasted between 3.00pm and 5.30pm yesterday.
A source at the meeting alleged that “the budget got to the Villa (State House) at about 1.10am and Mr. President went through it early this morning and still had some issues with some of the figures. I cannot tell you exactly what it was, but, I think the insertions made by the lawmakers were not significantly altered.
“You know the lawmakers had moved some allocations for key projects that are dear to the president to other areas, especially to their constituency projects. Of course, they have changed some, but, I believe Mr. President is not satisfied with the reconciliation they did. I think this is one of the reasons why it was returned.”
He claimed that the president would assent to the budget today should the lawmakers make all the corrections and transmit the document to him last night.
The source said: “I can assure you, Mr. President is desirous to sign the budget because he is aware and has acknowledged that Nigerians are going through hardship. He is also concerned, so, if the budget is cleaned up this night and sent to him, he will sign it as soon as possible. That I know very well”.
Although, the source could not mention any definite amount, Daily Sun investigations revealed that the N500 million diversion of funds to constituency projects was “what is given the president headache”
Another lawmaker, who is not a member of the review committee but a member of the standing committee on appropriation, declared that the “president wants a situation, whereby, the insertions should be reduced to about N50 million before he will sign the budget”.
He stated that the reviewed copy, which was sent yesterday morning did not cut substantially from the N500 million.
Daily Sun could not get the outcome of the meeting in the senate yesterday but feelers from the National Assembly indicated that the review committee returned to work after the meeting, to ensure that the president’s fresh observations were attended to and final copy transmitted for signing before tomorrow.