The National Assembly has finally completed work on details of the 2016 budget and is expected to present it to President Muhammadu Buhari today.
The budget details were presented to the Clerk to the National Assembly, Salisu Maikasuwa by the chairmen of the Senate and House of Representatives committees on appropriation at about 5pm yesterday.
Our correspondents observed that the submission was done behind closed-doors.
Maikasuwa will in turn send the 1,800 page document to President Buhari today.
President Buhari laid the appropriation bill before a joint sitting of the National Assembly on December 22.
But shortly after that the budget became enmeshed in controversy due the inconsistencies, errors, omissions and padding of figures.
This led to the sacking of the budget director and many of his staff by the President.
After about two months delay the two chambers of the National Assembly passed the budget on March 23 and sent it to the President the next day for his assent.
But a presidency official later said what was sent were the budget highlights and that the President would not assent to it until the details were returned to him.
He said there were suspicions the lawmakers were tinkering with the budget and that the President would study the details very well before appending his signature.
Speaking to reporters shortly after the submission of the document, the chairman of the House committee on appropriation, Rep Abdulmumin Jibrin (APC, Kano) confirmed they had made changes in the budget.
He said: “We have just submitted the details of the 2016 appropriation bill to the Clerk to the National Assembly for onward transmission to the executive arm of government.
He said the budget might not be exactly the same way the president sent it to them as there were inputs from lawmakers.
“Just like any other year, you always have to come to the situation where there is what the executive arm of government wants and what the legislative arm wants.
“The case of the appropriation committee is to continue to find a middle ground between both. But I want to say that the budget we just signed with my colleague in the Senate, to the best of our knowledge, is an implementable budget and to a large extend we believe that it is properly aligned with the vision of the government.
“It is important to reiterate that it took us extra weeks to get the details ready not because there was anything untoward going on but rather so we could correct all the inconsistencies, errors, omissions and padding in the document submitted to us in December last year.
“Fortunately, President Muhammadu Buhari, who we must commend for showing leadership, intervened and that helped in resolving what had become a serious logjam.
“Some officials in the executive branch have also been removed from their duty posts because of these glaring lapses.
“That happened because the president took direct responsibility and got involved in the process, not only to ensure synergy between the executive and the legislature but also so that we could both arrive at a budget that is implementable for the good of all Nigerians.”
But when contacted, the special assistant to the president on House of Reps matters Suleiman Abdulrahman Kawu Sumaila, said although he was informed that the budget details were submitted to the clerk, the usual practice was for the clerk to transmit same to the president by himself.
He added that they would wait and see what would happen today when they resume work at the National Assembly.
He said the president would thoroughly examine the details before assenting to it.
There are lots of expectations across the country about this year’s budget and the delays had caused so much concern to Nigerians.
So many provisions were made in the budget aimed at boosting the economy and creating employment.
The capital vote has an unprecedented N2 trillion allocation while the sum of N500 billion is provided for social welfare.
The government last month announced it would inject a total of N350 billion in the economy in the next few months.

Source: Daily Trust