The 2013 Nigerian budget is being delayed by the Executive.
Despite the wide publicity given to the early passage of the 2013 budget by the National Assembly including a high commendation by the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, the budget is yet to become law as President Goodluck Jonathan is yet to sign it.
In the past, the complaint, coming from the executive, had always been about the lawmakers delaying the passage of the budget. This time, the table seems to have turned as President Jonathan, two weeks after the National Assembly’s approval, is yet to sign the N4.924 trillion proposal.
The lawmakers had recorded a landmark achievement in the history of legislative processes in the country since 1999 with their passage of the appropriation bill by both the Senate and House of Representatives, on October 20, weeks before the expiration of the outgoing year and on the eve of a new fiscal calendar.
The approved appropriation is, however, higher by about N63 billion than the initial proposal in the “Budget of Consolidation and Inclusive Growth” submitted by the executive on October 10.
The controversy
The approval by the lawmakers may have glossed over the controversy that trailed the initial proposal over the most appropriate oil benchmark price that should be adopted for the fiscal year.
Chairman of the Senate Committee on Appropriation, Muhammad Maccido, while presenting the report on the approved budget said a benchmark oil price of $79 per barrel was adopted, rather than the $75 proposed originally by the executive.
Though Mr. Maccido said the lawmakers adopted the proposal by the executive on crude oil production capacity of 2.53million barrels per day and an exchange rate of N160 to the dollar, the other key assumptions and parameters in the 2013 appropriation were based on gross domestic products, GDP, growth rate of 6.5 per cent and inflation rate of 9.5 per cent.
Neither the Presidency nor Federal Ministry of Finance officials were willing to speak on why the President has delayed his assent to the approved appropriation, despite his declared desire to move away from the past practice where annual budgets are usually approved several months into the succeeding year.
Calls and text messages to the official telephone lines of presidential spokesman, Rueben Abati; and Paul Nwabuikwu, Special Adviser to the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister for the Economy, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala; were unanswered.
The lawmakers however confirmed that they had formally transmitted the approved budget to the president.
Senate spokesman, Eyinnaya Abaribe, confirmed in a text message response to PREMIUM TIMES’ enquiry that the approved Appropriation Bill was transmitted to the president a day after it was passed.
A management staff at the National Assembly, who pleaded anonymity, however, said the leadership of the National Assembly is convinced that the president would not delay his assent till the second week of January when the lawmakers are expected to return from their Christmas and New Year break.
“The lawmakers have done their part,” said the source, who requested anonymity because he was not authorised to speak on the matter.  ”It is left for the executive to do its part. Nobody is expecting that the President’s assent would be delayed for too long. We are studying the situation closely and would only know what to do if on resumption in January he has not signed.”
Reason for delay
However, PREMIUM TIMES preliminary findings are that the delay might be connected with the unresolved issue of oil benchmark controversy, which managers of the budget have refused to back down on.
Both Ms. Okonjo-Iweala and the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, Lamido Sanusi, have, at various times, argued against the raising of the benchmark price above the initial proposed level of $75 per barrel.
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Why did the house of ràpes increase the crude oil benchmark price? Looking for money to steal or trying to give the executive a hard job?