Nigeria: Osinbajo Accuses National Assembly of Injecting New Projects Into Budget

Abuja — Barely 24 hours after he signed the 2017 appropriation bill into law, Acting President Yemi Osinbajo has accused the National Assembly of injecting new projects into the budget.

Osinbajo said yesterday at the State House in Abuja at the 2018 budget preparation process that the National Assembly lacked the power to inject new projects into the fiscal plan, modify same as brought before it for approval.

He said: "I am sure that we understand, not just how to do it right, but to get it done in good time. The president presented this budget last December, but despite the assurances that it would be passed by February, it was not done until May.

"As it turned out, we were quite disappointed that it spent a bit of time before it was approved. Thereafter, we had to go into negotiations with the lawmakers to get it right.

"There are two broad issues about who can do what. The first report is about who can do what. This is something that we experienced last year and this year again. It now leaves the question about who is supposed to do what."

Osinbajo said the executive took the view that the "changes fundamentally affected some of our priority programmes and would make implementation extremely difficult and in some cases impossible."