At an event that ordinarily should be one of celebration, Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari was not a completely happy man, at least going by his comments.
The Friday event, at the State House, Abuja, was held for Mr Buhari to sign Nigeria’s 2022 budget which his government believes will help solve some of the myriads of problems facing the country.
Even though he signed the budget, however, Mr Buhari made it clear that he did so reluctantly.
One of his major grouse was that the 469 lawmakers that make up Nigeria’s Senate and House of Representatives inserted over 6,000 ‘new projects’ into the budget he submitted in October.
“Provisions made for as many as 10,733 projects were reduced while 6,576 new projects were introduced into the budget by the National Assembly,” Mr Buhari said in his speech at the ceremony, according to a statement sent to Newsmen by his office.
That means that on average, each of the lawmakers inserted 14 projects into the law guiding Nigeria’s income and expenditure for 2022.
For Mr Buhari, it was not just that the lawmakers made the insertions and also made ‘worrisome changes’ to the budget, “most of the projects inserted relate to matters that are basically the responsibilities of State and Local Governments, and do not appear to have been properly conceptualized, designed and costed.”
Interestingly, two of those at the budget signing ceremony were Senate President Ahmad Lawan and Speaker of the House Femi Gbajabiamila.
The lawmakers have in the past argued that they have the constitutional right to make such insertions.
