Juliana Taiwo-Obalonye, Abuja
The Presidency has explained why the revised 2020 budget was increased despite the drop in revenue that accrues to the government.
Senior Special Assistant on National Assembly Matters to President Muhammadu Buhari (House of Representatives), Umar El-Yakub, told State House Correspondents at the weekend that the increase was to address the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on the economy.
President Buhari had on Friday signed the N10.81 trillion revised budget into law. The original budget size signed into law in December 2019 was N10.594 trillion.
According to El-Yakub, the government had to prioritize infrastructure projects that would reflate the economy in the new budget.
“Some parameters were looked at, in any event the 2020 budget was benchmarked at $25 per barrel of crude oil, while the new amended budget was pegged at $28 per barrel. So because of that you can see there is a bit of an increase in revenue, and thank God also the price of oil from then even though the initial benchmark was at $53.
“There has been a leap recently in the price of oil and even though the production benchmark was reduced from 1.9 million barrels to 1.8 million barrels per day, but certainly because of the increment in projections as far as the cost of oil is concerned, some monies were realized and projected to be realized.
“In addition to that, one needs to understand the whole essence of the review,it is to prioritize government projects to the extent that projects that will certainly address infrastructure and ginger the economy more as well as address health issues, concerns.
“Because of the pandemic, investments are made in those regards and certainly you know that there are palliatives that had been initiated by the Federal Government in the phases of implementation.
“All those necessitated these reviews in the budget so as to free certain amounts of money hitherto appropriated for certain projects which in the circumstances are not expedient to prioritise. Infrastructure needs prioritisation and there is need to address the pandemic and the difficulties that it has brought to the lives of Nigerians. So to address these issues, the budget was looked at and amended,” he said..
On the new relationship between National Assembly and executive, El-Yakub said both arms of government were working for the people.
“The secret is in the commitment of the Federal Government under the leadership of President Muhammadu Buhari to serve the Nigerian people and also the commitment on behalf of the legislators in the National Assembly to live up to expectations and their call to duty to serve the Nigerian people as well. So it’s a relationship that is based on mutual understanding,respect and also the partnership in nation building,
it’s indeed a relationship that is predicated on service, so the executive arm of government has always partnered with the membership of the National Assembly, especially the 9th Assembly as demonstrated by their actions in terms of expeditious passages of bills as well as screening of nominees of Mr President for various appointments.”
On allegations that the National Assembly is mere rubber stamp to the executive, the presidential liaison officer with the lawmakers said: “I believe Nigerians voted members of the National Assembly to represent their interest and to work for their betterment as well as to make laws that will be for the good governance and order for the country and in order to ensure that happens, the National Assembly certainly needs the executive arm of government because it is indeed the arm that implement those laws that have been passed by the National Assembly.
“As you have witnessed today, the signing of the 2020 repeal and amendments bill is one of those the National Assembly looked at expeditiously because it is an amendment that was necessitated by the circumstances of the moment ie the pandemic which also caused a serious strain on the economy in terms of the revenue that are generated as well as other benchmarking indices so to that extent, you find out that the NASS are rising to the expectations of Nigerians partnering with the executive to deliver on services to the Nigerian people and for me that is responsibility, that is partnering in nation building and indeed that is what they have been elected to do, so for one to suggest that they are being rubber stamped even the executive actually recognized and appreciates the independence various arms of government as you are all aware, Mr President is someone that believes in the rule of law and he allows processes to take precedence and therefore whatever is due by law to engage the National Assembly, this government has always been very proactive in doing that and also we appreciate the relationship because they have also demonstrated in many ways than one that they are committed to serving the Nigerian people. This is clearly one of those times that when we presented the amendment which by the way we have always interacted even before from the executive arm with the legislature to carry them along. This is something that hadn’t been going on with other assemblies, perhaps that is why Nigerians thought they are just approving, passing bills or screening nominees but the reality is that they are carried along in the whole process.”