Why Buhari signed 2022 budget despite reservation - Presidency

Notwithstanding his reservation, President Muhammadu Buhari signed the 2022 Appropriation Bill to avoid what the Presidency called throwing "away the baby with the bath water".

President Buhari had raised queries on the Bill while signing it into law last Friday. Among his criticisms was the insertion of 6,576 contracts into the Bill by the National Assembly.

In a statement on on Sunday, a Presdiential spokesman Garba Shehu denounced the  interpretations of the President's concern about the contract insertion as a sign of a battle between the Executive and the Legislature.

Shehu however said that amendment to the 2022 Appropriation Bill was in the works.

He  said: “Given Mr President’s commitment to improving the lot of the common man, it was felt that it would not be wise to throw away the baby with the bathwater.

“Mr President was clear and candid in expressing his reservations with the numerous changes to the 2022 Budget made by the National Assembly, which would hamper its implementation".

Specifically responding to critics who questioned the wisdom in assenting to the Bill that was believed to have been severely tampered with, the Presidential spokesman said that the "need to Save Value-Additive Projects, Programmes and  Policies" was one of the President's considerations.

"Although over 10,733 projects were reduced and 6,576 new projects were introduced into the budget by the National Assembly, there are tens of thousands more provisions in the 2022 Budget, all of which, when efficiently and effectively implemented, will have significant developmental impact on the lives and livelihoods of ordinary Nigerians.

"Ongoing capital projects, critical recurrent votes, priority new projects – all feature in the 2022 Budget and Mr President’s forbearance in assenting to the Budget will save these provisions from implementation delays and other challenges;  and

"Dealing with modern democratic norms: President Buhari is a democrat who deeply believes in the supremacy of the Constitution, with its checks and balances across the three arms of Government". according to Shehu.

The Presidential spokesman maintained that, "while it is true that his principal expressed disagreement with other alterations, including the ‘reduction in the provisions for many strategic capital projects to introduce ‘Empowerment Projects,’ innumerable lies are being spread about his (President) being ‘angry’ at the parliament".

“This cannot be farther from the truth",  he  added.

Shehu pointed out that as Senate  Ahmed Lawan said shortly after the budget signing,  disagreements as the ones listed by President Buhari are normal in the everyday Executive-Parliamentary relationships

He  added: “While we note that there are people who are trying to create a fiasco between the two arms of government on account of the budget, we assure that they will, in the end, be disappointed.

”The Executive and the 9th National Assembly have since moved away from the wild, destructive political games of the past, conducting themselves in a way that puts national interest supreme in their decisions".