The 2016 budget proposal submitted to the National Assembly by President Muhammadu Buhari last month, was declared missing yesterday as new report suggests that a new one has now been distributed with significant changes from the old one.
President Buhari presenting the 2016 budget to the National Assembly
On Wednesday,
we reported in here that some Nigerian senators were suspicious that the Nigerian presidency is behind the sudden disappearance of the 2016 budget which was presented to a joint session of the National Assembly in December.
Some senators, who requested not to be named so as not to anger the presidency, revealed that they had since realized the budget was discreetly withdrawn by the president in order to make some adjustments.
The lawmakers disclosed that the intelligence they had gathered, suggested that the presidency discreetly withdrew the documents to enable it to make some adjustments to it.
The senators said the presidency had in the past two weeks, been combing through the budgets with a view to removing provisions that had so far exposed the administration to ridicule.
One of the senators said, "The executive have now started delivering fresh copies of the budget documents to the National Assembly.
"The details in the copies they are delivering are different from those in the version delivered to the National Assembly in December. Some adjustments have been made."
When contacted, the Minister of State for National Planning, Zainab Ahmed, expressed shock at reports of missing budget. She explained that more than 400 copies of the document were delivered to the two chambers on Monday by the printer, for distribution to all members.
"After the official presentation of the budget by the President on December 22, 2015, both hard and soft copies were given to some key members of the Assembly. How can anyone say all the copies are missing?.
"Immediately after the presentation (by Buhari), most of the members went on break. But a printer was given the job to produce the document for distribution to all members on resumption.
"On Monday, the printer delivered more than 400 copies to the National Assembly for distribution to members and their aides. Another 100 copies were delivered this afternoon (Tuesday). Therefore, the same budget cannot be said to be missing," she said in an interview.