The Minister of Budget and Planning has revealed that President Muhammadu Buhari “needs more time to check the 2016 budget bill before signing it” according to a report from Reuters. The budget has been with the Presidency for over two weeks now and was submitted before Buhari went for his trip to China two weeks ago.
The controversial budget is now over 4 month’s old and has gone from one controversy to the other with Nigerians on the receiving end of every delay. According to Reuters, Senator Udo Udoma was quoted as saying
“On the 2016 budget we are still talking,”
Reports in local media earlier in the week suggest that the Presidency was still scrutinizing the budget in a bid to ensure that all that was provided for in the budget remained intact. The National Assembly was accused of reclassifying the Calabar to Lagos railway project which the government said it had added in the revised budget. The Senate has so far refused to include the project in this budget. It is thus believed that, the government has seen this as an indication that there could be more changes and have therefore charges respective MDA’s to go through it.
