Full Speech: We are facing our toughest economic times - Buhari

Full speech of President Muhammadu Buhari at the epochal budget signing ceremony in Abuja today.

” It gives me great pleasure today to sign the first full-year budget of this administration into law. I thank the leadership of the National Assembly, in particular, the Senate President and the Speaker of the House of Representatives, and indeed all members of the National Assembly for their cooperation in making this a reality.

The budget is intended to signpost a renewal of our commitment to restoring the budget as a serious article of faith with the Nigerian people. This Administration is committed to ensuring that henceforth the annual appropriation bill is presented to the National Assembly in time for the passage of the Act before the beginning of the fiscal year.

Through the 2016 budget, aptly titled “Budget of Change’’, the government seeks to fulfil its own side of the social contract. The Budget I have signed into law provides for aggregate expenditures of N6.06trn. Further details of the approved budget, as well as our Strategic Implementation Plan for the 2016 budget, will be provided by the Honourable Minister of Budget and National Planning.

To illustrate our renewed commitment to infrastructural development, the 2016 budget allocates over N200bn to road construction as against a paltry N18bn allocated for same purpose in the 2015 budget.

I shall be speaking in more details about the Budget, its implementation and the over-all national economic and social policies of the Government in my address on May 29th, God willing.

In designing the 2016 budget, we made a deliberate choice to pursue an expansionary fiscal policy despite the huge decline in government revenues from crude oil exports. This is why we decided to enlarge the budget deficit at this time, to be financed principally through foreign and domestic borrowings. All borrowings will however be applied towards growth-enhancing capital expenditures.

The signing of the budget today will trigger concerted efforts to reflate the Nigerian economy, a key element of which is an immediate injection of N350bn into the economy by way of capital projects. To illustrate our renewed commitment to infrastructural development, the 2016 budget allocates over N200bn to road construction as against a paltry N18bn allocated for same purpose in the 2015 budget.

Despite the current difficulties we will work extra-hard to achieve our revenue projections. Our revenue generating agencies are coming under better management and are being re-oriented. The implementation of the Treasury Single Account (TSA) is expected to contribute significantly to improving transparency over government revenues.

Our determined fight against corruption is resulting in improvements in the quality of public expenditure. The work of the Efficiency Unit, as well as other public financial management initiatives, are also contributing in this regard. The continuing efforts to reduce recurrent expenditures should hopefully free up more funds for capital expenditure in 2017 and beyond.

As I said in my New Year message, living in State House does not in any way alienate me from your daily struggles. I read the newspapers and listen to the TV and radio news. I hear your cries. I share your pains.

We are experiencing probably the toughest economic times in the history of our Nation. I want to commend the sacrifice, resilience and toughness of all Nigerians young and old who have despite the hardships continued to have hope and confidence of a great future for Nigerians. But permit me to say that this government is also like none other. We are absolutely committed to changing the structure of the Nigerian economy once and for all.

We are working night and day to diversify the economy so that we never again have to rely on one commodity to survive as a country. So that we can produce the food we eat, make our own textiles, produce most of the things we use. We intend to create the environment for our young peoples to be able to innovate and create jobs through technology.

I cannot promise you that this will be an easy journey, but in the interest of so much and so many we must tread this difficult path. I can assure you that this government you have freely elected will work with honesty and dedication, day and night to ensure that our country prospers and that the prosperity benefits all Nigerians. God bless Federal Republic of Nigeria.

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Buhari signs 2016 Budget

President Buhari this morning signed the 2016 budget. He received a clean copy of the budget from the National Assembly yesterday May 5th. Buhari signed the budget in the presence of the Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, and the chairmen of the National Assembly appropriation committees.

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2016 Budget: NASS will not override Buhari’s veto yet – Dogara

The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Rt Hon Yakubu Dogara, has said the National Assembly and the Executive are likely to resolve issues surrounding the 2016 budget very soon.

Dogara, who made this known when he received a delegation of the All Progressives Congress elders and stakeholders from Kwande/Oshongo federal constituency of Benue State in the National Assembly, also stated that the executive and the parliament will not have any fight over their differences arising from the 2016 budget as passed by the National Assembly.

He stated, “We know that our people cannot wait forever for the budget and as a responsible government, we cannot afford to go to sleep on this. As we speak to you, I know that the Executive has sent observations on the budget, areas they termed “grey areas”. We’ve taken delivery of that document, we are looking into it in collaboration with the Senate, and we have arrived at a decision which I will not announce here because it is for the ears of Mr. President only.”

“In the overall national interest, we know that we have to find a solution and sooner than later, I believe that as leaders, having put on our thinking caps, we should be able to come up with a solution that will address this problem.”

A statement signed by the Speaker’s spokesman Mr. Turaki Hassan, quoted him as saying that the National Assembly is well within its powers to make amendments to the budget before passing it because the role of the Executive stops at providing estimates to the legislature which now goes further to prepare it into an appropriation law.

Dogara explained, “the truth is that even though it is the responsibility of the parliament, constitutionally speaking, to prepare the budget, because I haven’t seen any region anywhere in the world where the executive does that, the constitution recognizes that the executive will prepare the estimates and revenues and present it before parliament and then the parliament, in exercise of its duties, will make appropriation in a document called budget. Budget is always a law, it is not a policy statement and there is no government arm, no institution of government that can make laws except the National Assembly. We have exercised that constitutional right and privilege which is exclusively reserved for the National Assembly using the document that is before the President and as we all know, a law requires the assent of the president; that is one of the instrumentalities of checks and balances that democracy guarantees and if it is not assented to after some time, then the parliament can summon the courage to say they are overriding the veto powers of the president or say the bill will have to commence de novo."

“But in this situation we are not there, even though there are discussions and people instigating a fight. We know that as leaders, our responsibility is not to fight. It is one government and this government will take the active collaboration of the Judiciary, Legislature and the Executive to be able to deliver on the mandate. We cannot form an opposition within the same government. The Executive cannot constitute itself into an opposition within the system in the same government; neither can the Parliament, even though it is a bipartisan one.”

The Speaker also gave the assurance that the present administration is committed to keeping up with its electoral promises, especially through the instrument of the budget, while urging the citizens to collaborate with the government to make it a success.

“I know that we promised a lot and the question on the lips of many Nigerians, including some of us who really fought for change is: “where is the change?” When we made those promises, we knew that change is constant, but if you want positive change, it has to be a guided one and it just doesn’t come easily. I can assure that all hands are still on deck to ensure that all that was promised is delivered to the people of Nigeria.”

Dogara also used the occasion to express his condolences to the government and people of Benue State over the “very sad and incessant incursion” into some of their communities, especially Agatu, while adding that though it has been the subject of many motions on the floor of the House, he is happy to note that the government has started doing something about it.

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Buhari meets ministers over budget

President Muhammadu Buhari is currently presiding over a meeting of the Federal Executive Council where a major decision on the 2016 budget may be taken. The meeting started at exactly 11am inside the Council Chambers of the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo; Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Babachir Lawal; and most ministers are in attendance.

Details soon

- Punch

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Senate passes N6.07 trillion 2016 budget

Following a motion by Senator Danjuma Goje on Wednesday for the passage of 2016 Appropriation of N6.07trillion and seconded by Senator Andy Uba, the Senate having been satisfied with sectoral explanations which show that the nation stands to benefit from the proposal, passed the budget into law.

“That the Senate do consider the Report of the Committee on Appropriations on the 2016 Bill,” Goje urged.

DAILY POST reported that while elucidating on the budget, Goje admitted that the budget being the first to be presented by APC-led administration was fraught with irregularities which he described as strange.

He pointed those irregularities to be late presentation by the Executive, inconsistencies by Ministries, Departments and Agencies, inadequacy of revenue to simulate the economy as well as omission on personnel cost.

In his report, Goje recommended that the subsequent budget should be brought to the National Assembly by the Executive in strict compliance with the processes so as to reduce volume of errors and to avoid instances where Ministers will deny knowledge of figures of the affected agencies as presented by the budget office.

He added that government should shore up Capital Expenditure by reducing Recurrent Expenditure for massive infrastructural development of the nation.

“Mr. President, Distinguished Colleagues, at this juncture, I want to recommend that subsequent budget should be brought in strictcompliance with the procedure so that we will not see Ministers denying their own budget before Committee on Appropriations,” Goje added.

Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, however, expressed fears that omission of personnel cost which was reflected on the report was fundamental, urging the Senate for a redress so as not to be misinterpreted as a deliberate attempt by the Senate to withhold salaries of some Ministries.

In his clarification, Goje confirmed that a window has been created by the Committee to mitigate the gap, hence there was nothing to fear by the affected agencies.

“Distinguished Senators, the Joint Appropriation Committee has created a window where funds can be drawn by the federal government to pay staff salaries of those agencies,” he maintained.

In line with the tradition, Senate President reads through the schedule, short and long title while insisting that section 318of the 1999 Constitution of the federal Republic as amended be complied with.

“Distinguished Senators, government must comply with Section 318 of the 1999 Constitution which means the budget runs for 12 Calender months from March and ends in March the preceding year,” Saraki said.

Saraki commended the Committee for a good job done on the budget in view of hiccups inherent in it while urging the full implementation by Executive so that it will support made in Nigeria goods.

He hopes that 2017 Budget would be presented on time. Meanwhile, in a motion moved by the Senate Leader, Ali Ndume, asked that the plenary be adjourned till 2.00pm for adoption of voice votes.

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