The Deputy Chairman, Senate Committee on Appropriation, Sunday Ogbuoji, says politicking by politicians in preparation for the general elections was responsible for the delay in the passage of the 2019 budget.
He stated this on Tuesday while appearing as a guest on Channels Television’s Politics Today, a few hours after the Senate passed the budget.
“You will recall also that the date for the passage of this budget is slightly delayed because of in-between from the time the budget was submitted, we have been busy as politicians politicking, most people running for offices hoping to come back to the Senate and other offices.
“So that might account for the delay in releasing the budget. All the same, I think we did a job that we can boldly say should approximate to what the Executive brought to the National Assembly,” he stated.
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While thanking Nigerians for their support, he noted that the National Assembly did not tamper with the benchmark for the budget as presented by President Muhammadu Buhari in December last year.
“I want to thank Nigerians that finally we are through with politicking and we are back properly into governance.
We tried to do as much as possible around what the Executive brought to the National Assembly. You can see that the budget that we passed, we never touched the benchmark,” he said.
When asked of Nigerians’ expectations after the passage, the lawmaker stated that the budget will be transmitted back to President Buhari for his assent.
He explained that after the President would have signed it into law, it’s the responsibility for the Executive arm of government to see to the full implementation of the budget.
Ogbuoji believes that once the budget is fully executed especially on the capital side, the nation’s economy will be positioned for growth.
