Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has asked Nigerians to hold members of the National Assembly responsible for the delay in implementing the 2018 budget.
In a chat with newsmen in Lagos today, Sunday, Osinbajo said that the executive arm of the government has done its part and was waiting on the federal lawmakers for passage of the appropriation bill.
“We have a democracy that has, as you know, three arms. The two relevant arms for budget are the executive and legislature.
”If you recall when I was Acting President, I signed the 2017 budget and, at that time, I made the announcement with the full consensus of the National Assembly that, from 2018, we are going to have a budget that is going to apply in January and end in December the normal financial year.
”We agreed that we will submit our proposal in good time, and we did that first week of November.
”The President did so. We fulfilled that part of the agreement. The budget is with the National Assembly. There is very little we can do to control that. That’s the system that we have.”
Asked to comment on the seeming rift between the Executive arm of Government and the Legislature, Osinbajo replied: “Well, I’m not so sure that the tensions are unknown.”
“The democratic system anywhere as, for example, in the US where we borrow our bicameral legislature from, you find that despite the fact that the Republican Party controls major part of parliament, it still doesn’t mean that bills are necessary going to go through.
”So, one must assume that the responsibility of the National Assembly is to scrutinize what the executive is doing and not just to be a rubber stamp.
”But I also agree with you entirely that it’s important for us, for the sake of our country, our economy and for the sake of many young people who are relying on us to deliver.
”We ensured that we released our budget on time. I want to believe that the executive has done its part and we wait on the National Assembly.” [myad]
