By David Agba
Abuja
The delay in the passage of the Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF), by the National Assembly may dislocate the performance of the 2016 budget as observed by the Centre for Social Justice (CSJ).
Lead Director of CSJ, Barr Eze Onyekpere made this known in a statement in reaction to the recent passage of the budget for presidential assent.
According to the statement, “ the fact that the Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) 2016-2018 was not approved by NASS until the final consideration of the budget is a cause for worry.
The MTEF undergirds the budget and should have preceded the presentation of the budget. Thus, an approved MTEF is a condition precedent to the commencement of budget preparation and should have guided its parameters. However, the budget and the MTEF have been approved at the same time and day. This is wrong in law and in fact.”
Onyekpere pointed out that Nigerians expect the President to immediately assent to the bill and move the executive to expeditiously start the implementation of the budget, adding that the budget should be implemented to the letter, saying “and we are expectant of improvements in livelihoods, infrastructure, social services, employment, economic growth and raising the dignity of Nigerians.”
He further noted that there is also the expectation that the federal government should expeditiously devise a coherent and strategic framework to guide future budgeting and governance, so that the policy direction and road map can be clear for citizens and the private sector to make rational economic decisions.
“Someone needs to tell the President that he has just two years to govern and to the end of his tenure, not three as he presupposes. The last year will be out to politicking and with the effluxion of the first year, just two are remaining,” Onyekpere stressed.