In a letter to the senate, Buhari
requested that N189.2 billion be released to INEC. He asked that N143.5 billion
be released this year and N45.6 billion in 2019.
Udoma Udoma, minister of budget
and national planning, had said the president requested the approval of N143
billion because he did not want an increase in the overall size of the 2018
budget.
According to him, if the joint
committee wish to approve the entire N189billion without resulting into
increase in the N9.12trillion 2018 budget size, so be it and would be
appreciated by the executive.
“Mr President will have no
objection to the national assembly approving the entire N189billion INEC budget
as long as it does not in anyway, lead to increase in the overall size of the
2018 budget,” he had told the committee.
“If this is to be done, the
N45.6billion the president in his letter proposed to be provided for in the
2019 budget, would also have to be vired along with the N143billion from the
N578billion fund appropriated for in the 2018 budget by the national assembly
for the additional 1,403 projects included in the budget.”
The budget consideration had
divided the lawmaker along party lines as those in the All Progressives
Congress (APC) argued for the approval of N189 billion while their Peoples
Democratic Party (PDP) counterparts demanded that N143 billion be adopted.
After a closed-door session on
Monday, Suleiman Nazif, chairman of the committee, said the panel explained why
the budget was adopted.
He said the electoral body had
been asked to return to the national assembly to present the budget.
“The joint committee sat and has
come up with the resolution to adopt the N143 billion presented by Mr.
President. It is also the wish of this committee that INEC present their budget
of N143 billion as requested by Mr. President,” he said.
“Therefore, INEC has an
opportunity to prioritise its expenditure on the N143 billion and this
committee is ready to receive them tomorrow.
“This committee will be
reconvening tomorrow (today) by 1pm so that we can consider the presentation by
INEC.”
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