Buhari receives clean copy of 2016 budget for assent

President Muhammadu Buhari may have finally received the clean copy of the 2016 budget for possibly assent tomorrow or  Friday, weeks after he refused to sign the document over alleged padding of figures by the National Assembly.

Already, Aso Rock received a preview copy of the document on Monday night, a highly placed source told BusinessDay on Tuesday.

“The grey areas are being eliminated one by one. And Nigerians will be happy when the budget is passed. They are being eliminated and reduced. It will be a budget for Nigeria made by Nigerians,” the source stated.

“We received the preview copy on Monday night, not the final copy that will be forwarded”, the source who spoke on condition of anonymity revealed.

“The President is expected to receive the document on Tuesday night (yesterday) and sign the budget on Wednesday or Thursday.”

This came to the fore as the leadership of the National Assembly and some members of the Federal Executive Council met on yesterday to take a final decision on the appropriation bill.

The meeting, coordinated by Udoma Udoma, the Minister of Budget and National Planning, was aimed at reviewing the preview copy already with the Executive in readiness for transmission to President Buhari for his assent on Wednesday or Thursday.

Vice President Yemi Osinbajo had assured at the weekend that the President would assent to the 2016 budget this week.

According to him, when the budget is signed, the Federal Government will immediately commence the implementation.

“The budget will become operational in the next few days,” Osinbajo assured.

President Buhari who received the 2016 budget passed by the National Assembly a few weeks ago, declined to give assent to it, claiming it was distorted by the legislators. He later returned the document to the Assembly, saying some grey areas needed to be reviewed.

Some of the capital projects affected include the N60 billion Lagos-Calabar rail project, which was removed by lawmakers; reduction of the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway project by N24billion; reduction of Second Niger Bridge by N3.9billion; Benin-Sagamu Road slashed by N800million; Kano-Maiduguri-Ngala Rail cut by N260million amongst others.

The Tuesday meeting between the ministers and the federal lawmakers was preceded by a marathon meeting of senators immediately after plenary at 1pm.

Confirming the development, the source revealed that the grey areas listed by the President have been ‘eliminated’ gradually.

According to her, the working between both groups is ‘consensual’. She further said that the assurances by the Vice President will be kept. “The Vice President is the head of the economic team” she said.

Information Minister, Lai Mohammed, had disclosed that there would be increased activities in ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) once the budget was passed.

OWEDE AGBAJILEKE