The Senate Leader, Dr. Ahmad Lawan, yesterday, said that the National Assembly was not satisfied with the level of implementation of the 2017 budget by the executive.
But Lawan was optimistic that before the end of the year’s budget circle, much would have been achieved on the implementation of the budget.
The Senate leader, who stated this in an interview with State House correspondents after having a closed-door meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, also said that the National Assembly was working towards ensuring that any budget from the executive would be implementable and fair to all parts of the country in terms of projects allocation.
Lawan, who visited the President alongside Senate Majority Whip, Prof. Olusola Adeleye said their visit was private and that he will keep their mission secret.
He said, “This is a private visit to the villa. It is not an official visit therefore I will choose to keep the reasons private but you know as principal officers of the National Assembly, this is our administration and this villa is also ours.
“So, as APC (All Progressives Congress) leaders, we are free to come here to interact with the people holding forth here, the President, Chief of Staff and others working for this administration.”
Fielding questions on whether the implementation of the 2017 was satisfactory, Lawan said, “We are still working to ensure that implementation of the 2017 budget continues. So far, it hasn’t been able to be implemented the way we thought it would. You remember that there are certain things that you don’t just get them to happen at once, some processes must take place before you finally have projects kicking off”.
“So, I believe between now and when the 2017 budget circle will be completed much would have been done and achieved.”
Commenting on the government target to reset the budget circle from January to December and whether the National Assembly will pass the budget by December 31, he said circumstances would determine that.
He said, “Well it depends on how it goes. You know we are supposed to be working on the same page, working for the same people of Nigeria and we will like to see the National Assembly working in tandem with the executive arm of government.
“You know these things will be determined by what the budget looks like, the estimates presented to us because naturally we always try to do a very thorough job, a very patriotic job to ensure that the budget is implementable, to ensure there is equity there is fairness, justice in the distribution of projects across the country.
“We will like to see that done but we shouldn’t just do that at all costs, we should be looking at the benefits that could accrue from doing that and whether it is possible to just do it at once or maybe reduce the period in two phases or even more.
“The 2017 budget took effect from June this year, if it is possible for us to complete the implementation of the budget in six months from June, so be it but that also requires that we implement the budget properly because these are projects that are supposed to bring development, relief and succour to Nigerians, and if it is not possible we shouldn’t force it on ourselves that we must terminate it.
“Regardless of what happens, we should look at the potential consequences of completing it in December or whether we need to extend it a little bit more into March for example but these are issues that when we engage between ourselves the executive and the legislature we will be able to sort them out for the benefit of Nigerians.”