President Muhammadu Buhari may return the 2016 Budget to the
National Assembly.
A major reason for this, it was learnt, was the discovery that
the revised document sent to him by the lawmakers was hard to work with.
According to Vanguard, the President felt disappointed that
provisions for major national projects and programmes were either outrightly
removed or funds for such slashed.
The Presidency had, last Thursday, convened an emergency Federal
Executive Council (FEC) meeting on Friday for Ministers to review the budget
passed for their respective ministries, departments and agencies.
At the review meeting presided over by Vice President, Yemi
Osinbajo, Head of the Economic Team, some key projects were found modified or
deleted.
These include key projects like the Calabar-Lagos coastal rail
line for which Buhari made a provision of N60 billion.
While the Kano-Lagos railway project was untouched, the amount
set aside for the completion of the Idu/Kaduna railway project, was slashed by
N8.7 billion.
A presidency source who made the revelation to the newspaper,
said the Lagos/Calabar coastal railway project and some others to be funded by
governments of China and Nigeria, were one of the main reasons for the
President’s trip to China.
The source further lamented that while the executive had
provided for the completion of all major road projects across the country, the
National Assembly reduced the amounts provided and instead included new roads
which studies are yet to be conducted.
“The amounts provided by the National Assembly for the projects
can neither complete the on-going road projects nor the new ones proposed. At
the end of the year, no progress would have been made”, the source said.
Continuing, “Allocations for the purchase of essential drugs for
major health campaigns like polio and AIDS, which is fast depleting, were
removed and same allocated to provision of ambulance, which the health ministry
did not ask for.
“It was also observed that certain provisions made in the areas
of agriculture and water resources to further the Federal Government’s
diversification project were either removed or reduced while the funds were
moved to provisions of rural health facilities and boreholes, for which
provisions have been made elsewhere,” it said.
“The President is desirous of signing the Bill into law so that
implementation of the provisions could begin in earnest for the benefit of the
people. That is why the moment he received the document on Thursday, a meeting
was convened for Friday to immediately start work on it,” the source said.
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