2018 Budget Faces Threat As N/Assembly Demands N100bn Before Debate

National Assembly

The 2018 appropriation bill seems to have been faced with fresh threats as Members of the House of Representatives are demanding increased funding of the 2017 budget as a condition for treating the 2018 budget expected to be presented to the National Assembly on November 7 by President Muhammadu Buhari.

Lawmakers have generally assessed the funding of the budget, particularly the capital component, as poor and far from encouraging.

Investigations showed that very dear to the hearts of the members were their zonal intervention projects, which have so far been neglected by the Executive.

There is a provision of about N 100 bn in the budget for the zonal intervention projects of members of the National Assembly. However, it was learnt that the releases so far made did not cover the zonal projects.

One source stated, Nothing has been released for the constituency projects of members . These people are politicians and elections are not far away.

"They have to present something to their people as dividends of democracy to guarantee some votes at the next polls . If the zonal projects are not funded , there will be setbacks for the 2018 budget .”