The 2016 Appropriation Act signed by President Muhammadu Buhari on Friday will run until May 2017, the Presidency has said.
The president on Friday gave assent to the N6.06 trillion 2016 budget passed by the National Assembly.
Senior Special Assistant to President Muhammadu Buhari on National Assembly (Senate), Ita Enang, who spoke in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State on Sunday, explained that“The Act provides that the budget takes effects from the date assented to by the president, and run a full course of 12 months”.
The former Senate Committee Chairman on Rules and Business continued: “So, as the president assented to this budget on the 6th of May, 2016, this budget will last and expire on 6th of May 2017. This is an ingenious introduction by the National Assembly to ensure that there is full implementation of the budget”.
Mr. Enang also thanked Nigerians for their patience during the budget debacle, even as he commended the Senate and the House of Representatives members whom he said demonstrated bi-partisanship during the controversy that trailed the exclusion of the Lagos-Calabar rail project from the budget.
“I want to thank the Senate Minority Leader, Godswill Akpabio, and members of the PDP in both the Senate and the House of Representatives. They were bi-partisan, and they worked like one Nigeria”, he said.
The presidential aide said apart from the Lagos-Calabar rail project, there was another big project in the budget for residents of Cross River and Akwa Ibom.
This, he said, was the proposed construction of a dual carriage-way along Odukpani-Itu-Ikot-Ekpene Highway, which links the two South-South states together.
“I would want to call it the legacy project,” the presidential aide said, adding that N6 billion has been provided for the take-off of the road project in the 2016 budget.
“The road will ease the suffering of the people”, he said.
Mr. Enang also told reporters that President Buhari has not introduced any grazing reserve bill to the National Assembly as widely speculated.
The bill was rumoured to contain provisions that will mandate creation of grazing reserves for herdsmen in all states of the federation.
The former senator also spoke on personal lessons he learnt during the 2016 budget crisis to include speaking less, and working more.
“Two, explain to your boss, your employer, and the people who are expecting results from you, how difficult it was to attain and bring a result, and not why result was not brought.
“The experience is that, no matter how hard a thing is, work through it, and when your wit seems to be running out, pray, and work harder”.
2016 Budget To Be Implemented Till May 2017 – Presidency
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