It's Premature to Criticize President Buhari Over 2016 Budget - House of Reps Member

Posted by Odinaka on Tue 16th Feb, 2016 - tori.ng

A member of House of Reps has argued that critics should wait for the National Assembly to conclude work on the Budget, adding that the hoopla over the 2016 budget was unnecessary as the document was still a mere proposal.

Hon. Bode Ayorinde

Hon. Bode Ayorinde, a member of the Federal House of Representatives, has hinted that the National Assembly will slash the over N6trillion 2016 budget presented to it by President Muhammadu Buhari, following the dwindling fortunes of the price of crude oil in the international market.

The lawmaker argued that critics should wait for the National Assembly to conclude work on the document and for the President to append his signature, before taking the government up on its content.

Hon. Ayorinde, who is the Deputy Chairman of the House Committee on Rules and Business, said the hoopla over the 2016 budget was unnecessary as the document was still 'a mere proposal.'

While speaking to journalists in Akure on Monday, the governorship aspirant in Ondo State on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC), said;

"I am telling you, the budget is going to be reduced, oil is no longer $130 per barrel, it is now $28. So you don’t expect the agencies to just take the capital budget and start implementing. Where are they going to get the money from?

"It is different from when we pegged the oil price at $70 and we sold at $100, and so we created sovereign wealth fund and excess crude account. Now is there anything called excess crude, what are we going to share now, we are now sharing deficit. No salary for workers."

He said committees of the House had almost concluded work on the budget estimate having brought ministries, departments and agencies to defend their proposals.

"I have a copy of the budget in my office and I don’t have any problems with it. The budget was given to us and full of typographical errors. The president wrote to bring in a neater copy and informed the house that the first one contained errors.

"Journalists said there are two budgets. There are no two budgets in the legislature. When the president brought the corrected copy, we jettisoned the one with errors.

"Whatever has come from the president is a proposal for God’s sake. It is what now emanates after the fireworks of the committees that the President will sign into law.

"Why are we quarreling about a mere proposal? You will have a business with the budget that will be ready first or second week of March."