The Minority Leader of the House of Representatives, Representative Femi Gbajabiamila has stated that lawmakers have the right to include their constituency projects in the nation’s annual budget.
According to the lawmaker, unelected Special Advisers to the President include projects they wanted funded in the budget and lawmakers who are elected by their constituencies’ and know what the constituency needs, have every right to include such projects in the budget.
Mr Gbajabiamila made the argument on Channels Television Business Morning programme where he was discussing on the lingering controversy between the executive and the legislature over the implementation of the 2013 Budget.
President Goodluck Jonathan has failed to sign the 2013 Appropriation Bill into law and sent it back to the National Assembly over some grey issues such as the inclusion of constituency projects by the National Assembly.
The President is reported to have queried the ‘padding of the budget’ by the additional N63billion added to the budget and the increase of the oil benchmark from $75 to $79.
Mr Gbajabiamila further defended the increase in the oil bench mark saying “what are we saving for when the nation has massive need for infrastructural development.”
