His coming to power again as President after thwarting the constitutional elected president some decades ago was based on his antecedents and financial probity.
People voted Goodluck Jonathan out on premise of his perceived attitude to condoning mind-boggling corruption. His popular quote that corruption is different from stealing will not be forgotten so soon.
Back to Buhari-led administration, the administration has been faced with different challenges since inception, some of which are, 2016 budget padding, epileptic power supply, scarcity of petroleum products, harsh economy, denial of electioneering promises, inconclusive elections, among others.
But for this post, I will only beam my analysis on one of them, which is the much publicised and controversial '2016 budget'.
The Budget which was presented personally by the President on December 22nd before the joint session of the National Assembly has been facing with a lot of controversies.
The first was the declaration that the Appropriation Bill was missing. How on earth can that be possible?
Few hours later, we were told that it has been seen. Though unconfirmed source in the know claimed that the presidency wanted to change the contents of the documents through the backdoor but was unsuccessful.
After dust settled on that, the National Assembly members started their legislative work on the documents.
In the course of deliberations and budget defence, a lot of jaw-breaking scenarios were recorded, from budget paddling to budget denials by the Ministers.
Then we heard of a Minister accusing 'rats' of adding a whooping sum of N10 billion to his ministry's budget, minister of health to be precise. Minister of power, housing and works, Babatunde Raji Fashola and Alhaji Lai Mohammed of Information and Culture also denied their budget estimates.
After all the debates by the legislature, the summary of the budget was passed to the President for assent.
Buhari bent on seeing the details before assenting to it. Eventually when the details was forwarded, gross misrepresentations were visible, this made Mr. President to return it to the NASS for correction.
Among the reason for the rejection was the popular 'Lagos-Calabar Coastal Railway Project'. The project which is laudable but some few people decided to play politics with it.
Though the Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo has made it known that budget will come alive this week, it is our hope that the impasse between the legislative arm and executive arm will be laid to rest once and for all.
So if President Buhari is having problem preparing a budget which will serve as a framework for the all round development of the nation, then the much promised economic might be a mirage if care is not taken.
"if the foundation is destroyed, what can the righteous do?" President Buhari should please do the needful by having the best blueprint for him to have smooth sailing.
He should consult expertise if need be to get it right at this stage, because the foundation of a building is a factor to how last the building will be.
But we should not be in a hurry to judge nor crucify him because he has like 75% of journey left. It will be callous of us to award mark to a student after marking just 25% of his/er work.
Let's be optimistic, Nigeria will be great again. Change is a process not something that will come by accident.
-PFB
The first was the declaration that the Appropriation Bill was missing. How on earth can that be possible?
Few hours later, we were told that it has been seen. Though unconfirmed source in the know claimed that the presidency wanted to change the contents of the documents through the backdoor but was unsuccessful.
After dust settled on that, the National Assembly members started their legislative work on the documents.
In the course of deliberations and budget defence, a lot of jaw-breaking scenarios were recorded, from budget paddling to budget denials by the Ministers.
Then we heard of a Minister accusing 'rats' of adding a whooping sum of N10 billion to his ministry's budget, minister of health to be precise. Minister of power, housing and works, Babatunde Raji Fashola and Alhaji Lai Mohammed of Information and Culture also denied their budget estimates.
After all the debates by the legislature, the summary of the budget was passed to the President for assent.
Buhari bent on seeing the details before assenting to it. Eventually when the details was forwarded, gross misrepresentations were visible, this made Mr. President to return it to the NASS for correction.
Among the reason for the rejection was the popular 'Lagos-Calabar Coastal Railway Project'. The project which is laudable but some few people decided to play politics with it.
Though the Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo has made it known that budget will come alive this week, it is our hope that the impasse between the legislative arm and executive arm will be laid to rest once and for all.
So if President Buhari is having problem preparing a budget which will serve as a framework for the all round development of the nation, then the much promised economic might be a mirage if care is not taken.
"if the foundation is destroyed, what can the righteous do?" President Buhari should please do the needful by having the best blueprint for him to have smooth sailing.
He should consult expertise if need be to get it right at this stage, because the foundation of a building is a factor to how last the building will be.
But we should not be in a hurry to judge nor crucify him because he has like 75% of journey left. It will be callous of us to award mark to a student after marking just 25% of his/er work.
Let's be optimistic, Nigeria will be great again. Change is a process not something that will come by accident.
-PFB
I wonder o
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