Group Says Buhari Not Prepared To Rule Nigeria

The delay by the Buhari-led government to present before the National Assembly the 2016 budget, a month and half to the end of 2015 has led to accusations that President Buhari is not prepared to rule Nigeria.Making this known at a round-table meeting on Budget Transparency and Public Engagement in Budget Process, and sequel to the release of the Open Budget Survey 2015, in Abuja, Centre for Social Justice through its Executive Director, CSJ, Mr. Eze Onyekpere stated, “that the executive has not presented the 2016 budget to the National Assembly until now shows the unpreparedness of the current administration in matters of governance.“The provisions of the Fiscal Responsibility Commission Act, 2007, the reviewed Medium Term Economic Framework, MTEF, and the 2016 budget by now should have been approved by the National Assembly.“Right now, we don’t have the MTEF to underpin the budget and we don’t have the budget. The implication is that the budget is going to be presented very late and it may not be ready until the end of the first quarter of 2016, which has been the usual tradition. The implications are not funny for the administration of the Nigerian people.“That means that the capital budget will be delayed and by the time they approve it in March, April or May, it will be raining season and all out-door constructions will stop.“So, we are continuing the cycle of poor capital budget implementation and of course that would mean addressing less of the needs of the Nigerian people, who are suffering infrastructure deficit and also attending to less of the poor because the majority of Nigerians are poor and the budget is expected to address their needs.”