Buhari Signs 2018 Budget, Laments Insensitive Budget Cuts by N'Assembly *President regrets N347bn cut, increase of N'Assembly budget by over N14bn

Amid huge lamentations and outright displeasure, President Muhammadu Buhari Wednesday in Abuja signed the 2018 Appropriation Bill into law. 

The president said he was only compelled to assent to the bill because he wanted to avoid any action that could further slow down the recovery pace of the economy.

Buhari also lamented the decision of the National Assembly to unilaterally increase its own budget from N125 billion to over N139 billion, promising to send a supplementary budget back to the National Assembly to rectify identified problems in the budget.

The budget signing ceremony which took place in the State House, was witnessed by Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo, Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Boss Mustapha, Chief of Staff, Abba Kyari, ministers and National Assembly members.

Senate President Bukola Saraki and Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara who were absent at the event, were represented by the Deputy Senate Leader, Bala Na'Allah and House Chief Whip, Ado Doguwa respectively.

Buhari who lamented the failure of the National Assembly to pass the budget before the end of last year in accordance with the executive plan to return the country to January - December budget cycle, observed that the development "has a very significant accelerator effect on the financial plans of other tiers of government, and even more importantly, the private sector, which mostly operates on a January-December financial year."

However, he said the setback notwithstanding, he remained committed to the course of improving Nigeria's budgeting process and as well sustain the vision to return the country to January-December budget cycle.

Buhari lamented that the National Assembly made budget cuts to the tune of N347 billion for critical 4,700 projects from the original proposal and introduced fresh 6,403 projects at the cost of N578 billion into the budget which he said would be difficult to implement.

According to him, such budget cuts and fresh introductions would hamper the government's plan to deploy the 2018 budget for the consolidation of the achievements of previous budgets and simultaneously deliver on Nigeria’s Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP) 2017-2020.  

Lamenting that the fresh projects introduced by the National Assembly into the budget neither had any cost placed on them nor were they conceptualised and designed hitherto, Buhari said the new projects were added to the budgets of ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) without bearing in mind their capacity to implement them.

He also said a lot of the new projects are supposed to be executed by both the state and local governments and hence, adding them to federal government's burden was misplaced.

The president then proceeded to list such projects removed by the National as well as their importance to the economy.

 "Such examples of projects from which cuts were made are as follows: The provisions for some nationally/regionally strategic infrastructure projects such as Counter-part funding for the Mambilla Power Plant, Second Niger Bridge/ancillary roads, the East-West Road, Bonny-Bodo Road, Lagos-Ibadan Expressway and Itakpe-Ajaokuta Rail Project were cut by an aggregate of 11.5 billion Naira.

 "Similarly, provisions for some ongoing critical infrastructure projects in the FCT, Abuja especially major arterial roads and the mass transit rail project, were cut by a total of 7.5 billion Naira. The provision for Rehabilitation and Additional Security Measures for the United Nations Building by the FCT, Abuja was cut by 3.9 billion Naira from 4 billion Naira to 100 million Naira; this will make it impossible for the Federal Government of Nigeria to fulfill its commitment to the United Nations on this project.

 "The provisions for various Strategic Interventions in the health sector such as the upgrade of some tertiary health institutions, transport and storage of vaccines through the cold chain supply system, provision of anti-retroviral drugs for persons on treatment, establishment of chemotherapy centres and procurement of dialysis consumables were cut by an aggregate amount of 7.45 billion Naira.

 "The provision for security infrastructure in the 104 Unity Schools across the country were cut by 3 billion Naira at a time when securing our students against acts of terrorism ought to be a major concern of government.

 The provision for the Federal Government’s National Housing Programme was cut by 8.7 billion Naira. At a time when we are working with Labour to address compensation-related issues, a total of 5 billion Naira was cut from the provisions for Pension Redemption Fund and Public Service Wage Adjustment.

 "The provisions for Export Expansion Grant (EEG) and Special Economic Zones/Industrial Parks, which are key industrialization initiatives of this Administration, were cut by a total of 14.5 billion Naira. The provision for Construction of the Terminal Building at Enugu Airport was cut from 2 billion Naira to 500 million Naira which will further delay the completion of this critical project.

 "The Take-off Grant for the Maritime University in Delta State, a key strategic initiative of the Federal Government, was cut from 5 billion Naira to 3.4 billion Naira.

 "About seventy (70) new road projects have been inserted into the budget of the Federal Ministry of Power, Works and Housing.  In doing so, the National Assembly applied some of the additional funds expected from the upward review of the oil price benchmark to the Ministry’s vote.  Regrettably, however, in order to make provision for some of the new roads, the amounts allocated to some strategic major roads have been cut by the National Assembly.

 "Another area of concern is the increase by the National Assembly of the provisions for Statutory Transfers by an aggregate of 73.96 billion Naira.  Most of these increases are for recurrent expenditure at a time we are trying to keep down the cost of governance. 

"An example of this increase is the budget of the National Assembly itself which has increased by 14.5 billion Naira, from 125 billion Naira to 139.5 billion Naira without any discussion with the Executive.

"Notwithstanding the above stated observations, I have decided to sign the 2018 Budget in order not to further slowdown the pace of recovery of our economy, which has doubtlessly been affected by the delay in passing the budget.

"However, it is my intention to seek to remedy some of the most critical of these issues through a supplementary and/or amendment budget which I hope the National Assembly will be able to expeditiously consider," the president said.

The president however, said he was glad that N1.5 trillion was spent on capital projects in the 2017 fiscal year adding that the administration would work very hard to generate the revenues required to finance projects and programmes in the 2018 budget.  

He also said a deficit budget, which he described as the borrowing plan of the government would be forwarded to the National Assembly very soon and urged the National Assembly to give the document a speedy consideration and approval.

But in a swift reaction to the president's criticism of the handling of the budget by the National Assembly, Deputy Senate leader, Na'Allah, said the federal legislature was not disturbed by issues he raised.

According to him, it was impossible to have returned the budget to the executive the way it was submitted, explaining that the National Assembly had the responsibility to ensure that allocations in the budget were evenly distributed across the six geo-political zones of the country.

Promising that the National Assembly would treat the supplementary budget being proposed by the president with dispatch, Na'Allah also said if the National Assembly had approved allocations as proposed in the budget without looking at the merit, the legislature had not done its job as required.

Na'Allah also said delay in its passage as raised by the president could not be blamed on the National Assembly alone recalling that the MDAs failed to appear for their budget defence until they were given marching orders by the president.

"No, we are not worried. The job of parliamentarians is a very difficult one. The way the budget came, if we had allowed it to go that way, we would have been in trouble with those who elected us. You have to balance between the six geo-political zones.

"It is the balancing efforts by the National Assembly that led to those observations and happily enough, he himself has said he is coming with a supplementary budget which will be dealt with as quickly as possible. I assure you about that one. But it has not been brought. How can we give any timeline? Normally, supplementary budget doesn’t last long. It will be built on what has already been done by the National Assembly. I think that is the most important issue.

"About the issue of delay, the president is right, but at the same time, if you remember, you were here. The president had to order some MDAs to appear before the National Assembly for the purpose of defending their budgets. 

It’s a very delicate issue. If somebody says he wants N500 million for the maintenance of bridges nationwide, then you expect the National Assembly to say 'okay, that budget is approved because it came from the executive?' 

"Then, we have not done our work. We will be interested in knowing which of the roads are you going to maintain so that again, we don’t give another allocation in the next budget. Those observations are correct but in the budgeting process, those things are normal," Na'Allah said.

In his own reaction, Ado Doguwa, the Chief Whip of the House of Representatives, said Buhari had the freedom to raise the issues he brought up while signing the budget, observing that such issues were critical.

According to him, when the president eventually submits the proposed supplementary budget, the National Assembly will also have the freedom to examine the content. He echoed Na'Allah that the delay in passing the budget was necessary because the legislature was not expected to merely return the Appropriation Bill as presented to it.

"I think some of these major concerns Mr. President has raised are very critical and I am afraid if I should be in a position to respond on behalf of the House. But for me, as an individual and a member of the House of Representatives, I want to believe that the president is at liberty to raise some of these observations. 

"But the most important thing you have to know is that the budget has been signed and is now a law of the federation and we expect the executive to now implement the law to the letter. 

"Should the president however, bring about an amendment or a supplementary budget for the National Assembly to consider, we will also at the same time be at liberty to look at the president’s concerns and those things he wants us to now review and I want to believe that the National Assembly is always in a position to work hand in hand with Mr. president.

"Certainly, you wouldn’t expect us to just rubber stamp it and just bring it back. We have to do the nitty gritty of budget consideration. Whatever is worth doing, is worth doing well and we have done what we think is the right thing to do to deliver on the expectations and the mandate bestowed on us by the people of our constituencies," Doguwa stated.

The N9.12 trillion budget passed by the NationalAssembly on May 17 is made up  of N3.5 trillion recurrent (non-debt) expenditure and N2.8 trillion capital expenditure.

The budget is N500 billion higher than the N8.6 trillion proposal presented to the National Assembly by Buhari in November, 2017.

The National Assembly also increased the oil benchmark proposed by the executive from $45 to $51 per barrel but retained oil production volume proposal at 2.3 million barrels per day and exchange rate at N305 to $1.

The budget as passed by the federal legislature also comprised N530,421,368,624 as statutory transfer;N2,203,835,365,699 for debt service; N1,954,464,993,775 as fiscal deficit which implies 1.73 percent deficit to gross domestic product (GDP).