2019 polls: Blame Saraki, not Buhari for late budget presentation – Presidency

The presidency on Sunday said President Muhammadu Buhari was not to blame for the seemingly late presentation of the budget of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, for the 2019 election.

Rather, the presidency said, in a statement by presidential spokesperson Garba Shehu, Senate President Bukola Saraki was to blame.

Shehu’s statement is the latest in the accusations and counter-accusations between it and Saraki since the latter defected to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) from the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).

Recall that INEC’s budget for 2019 elections was submitted last month by Mr Buhari to the National Assembly. The budget is yet to be passed by the lawmakers amidst allegations INEC had submitted the budget to the presidency since February.

In his statement, Shehu said it was not true that INEC submitted the budget to the presidency in February. He, however, refused to disclose what month the electoral commission submitted its budget to the presidency.

“It is not true that INEC submitted their draft budget to the presidency in February. No, it came much later but even then, this is not the real issue,” he said.

Read Mr Shehu’s full statement below.

The Presidency wishes to respond to the false to accusations by Senator Bukola Saraki who alleged that President Muhammadu Buhari is to blame for the delay in approving the supplementary budget for INEC.

On the contrary, the Senate President should look into the mirror and what he will see is his own face. He is solely to be held responsible for deliberately driving the nation to this cliff edge as far as the preparations for next elections are concerned.

It is not true that INEC submitted their draft budget to the presidency in February. No, it came much later but even then, this is not the real issue.

The fact that their proposals came well after the president had laid his budget for the year 2018 before the National Assembly meant that their own will be sent as supplementary budget. This was clearly stated to them by the Minister of Budget and National Planning.

A supplementary budget cannot be submitted until the main budget is passed, and so the delay in passing the main budget was the reason for the delay. The National Assembly passed the 2018 budget seven months after the document was submitted to the National Assembly by President Buhari.

Unless someone has forgotten, the budget was submitted to the National Assembly and it took the Saraki-led National Assembly seven months to release it. There is no way President Buhari could have submitted a supplementary budget while the main one was still pending. It is never done. Because Saraki did not return the main budget, we could not have submitted the supplementary one.

After the long delays, the president was pained to sign the much distorted, butchered and debauched document. In giving his assent, President Buhari said that he was compelled to sign the budget so as not to keep the economy continuously on a standstill.

In his words: “When I submitted the 2018 Budget proposals to the National Assembly on 7th November 2017, I had hoped that the usual legislative review process would be quick, so as to move Nigeria towards a predictable January-December financial year.”

It is also worthy of note that this is the first time in Nigeria’s history that a government would bring together the cost of an election in one budget, with each agency involved invited to defend their portion of the budget before the National Assembly.

It is all part of the transparency that this government is known for. In the past, governments would approve INEC budgets and funding without a breakdown, often using ways and means to fund it, not so under President Buhari.