Whither the 2018 Federal Budget?

A Budget is an estimation of revenue and expenditure over a specified period of time, usually a year.

A government budget involves the input of the Executive and the Legislature. The Executive draws up the budget as a Bill and presents it to the Legislature for consideration and passage into law as an Appropriation Act.

As an Appropriation Act, the Budget empowers government to make financial decisions in terms of spending for execution of government programs, policies and fulfillment of domestic and international obligations.

As head of the federal Executive, President Muhammadu Buhari did his duty by presenting the 2018 Budget of the Federal Government to the joint session of the National Assembly on 7th November 2017.
It is exactly 6 months today since the President performed that constitutional responsibility. Unfortunately, however, the National Assembly has not done its bit in terms of passing the Budge. The august body keeps giving one excuse after another. Buck-passing is the word.

The question that easily comes to mind is, what exactly is wrong with the Budget that defies resolution by 109 Senators and 360 Representatives?

Even if the Executive did a gravely bad job of the Budget, isn’t 6 months enough time for the National Assembly to correct it?

The Budget is supposed to be for 12 months. Already, we are 5 months into the lifespan of the 2018 Budget. What time is left for Government to work with the Budget if at this time it is still gathering dust in the shelf of the National Assembly?

How sincere is this National Assembly? It seems to me they want to ground the Federal Government and thwarts its efforts. Seems to me the grand plan is to sabotage government and make it unable to perform so that President Buhari would be blamed.

Let no one be deceived. The 2019 election is being factored into the passage of the Budget by the men and women of the 8th National Assembly. This Assembly must go down as the worst ever in Nigeria’s history.