Buhari plans to review budget before assent
(Nigeria) President Muhammadu Buhari on Thursday in
Washington DC said he would critically review the 2016 Appropriation Bill
passed by the National Assembly before assenting to it.
He gave the indication at a meeting with the United States Secretary of State, John Kerry.
Buhari said that in view of the controversial alteration and
padding of the budget proposals, he needed to review the appropriation bill to
be certain that its content tallied with the authentic budget proposal
presented to the legislature.
He added that ``some bureaucrats removed what we put in the
proposal and replaced it with what they wanted.
``I have to look at the bill that has been passed by the
National Assembly, ministry by ministry, to be sure that what has been brought
back for me to sign is in line with our original submission.''
Declaring that his administration would continue to
vigorously prosecute the war against corruption, Buhari sought and received an
assurance from Mr Kerry that the U.S. Government would facilitate the
repatriation of all stolen Nigerian funds found within the American banking
system.
``It will greatly help our country if you assist us to
recover all our stolen funds which we can establish to be within your financial
system," the President told Mr Kerry.
Buhari acknowledged that the U.S. had been of great help to
his administration in retraining and re-equipping of the Nigerian Armed Forces
that resulted in the significant success already achieved against Boko Haram.
The President noted that the Federal Government was now
working very hard to restore full normalcy in the North Eastern states.
``Boko Haram no longer holds any local government area. We
are reconstructing damaged facilities and preparing the police to take over and
reassert civilian control over areas affected by the insurgency.''
Responding, the U.S. Secretary of State said he had been
told that the stolen Nigerian funds were in "billions of dollars".
``It's not easy to hide that amount of money and we are
pretty good in tracing them," Mr Kerry assured President Buhari.
He added that relevant U.S. Government Officials would meet
with the Chairman of Nigeria's Economic and Financial Crimes Commission to
discuss further cooperation in that regard.
Kerry applauded the Buhari administration's success in
rolling back the Boko Haram insurgency.
According to him, the U.S. will continue to give Nigeria all
possible support to ensure that the terrorist sect is finally eliminated as a
threat to national and regional security.
The Secretary also praised Buhari's clear order that
Nigeria's Armed Forces must show greater regard for the human rights of persons
in the theatre of operations against Boko Haram.
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