2016 Budget Controversy: Why PMB Is Not To Blame – Gbajabiamila

Femi-GbajabiamilaThe Majority Leader of the House of Representatives, Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila has absolved President Muhamadu Buhari of any blame for the controversy surrounding the preparation of the 2016 Budget estimates arising from apparent inconsistencies, padding of figures and duplications in the fiscal proposal, saying the bureaucrats were to blame for the mess.
Gbajabiamila made the disclosure while interacting with a delegation of the National Association of Nigerians Students (NANS) from the South-West geopolitical zone, who had come to honour him in Abuja at the weekend.
One of the students
had asked the prominent lawmaker to clear the air on the controversies surrounding the proposed 2016 budget currently under consideration by the National Assembly and responded, saying that those, who have be given positions of trust and saddled with the responsibility of the budget job at various levels have betrayed the President’s trust, hence Buhari is not to be blamed but the civil servants.
“First of all all, I’m gonna absolve the President, but am not gonna to absolve the people that did it. Why I must absolve the President I will tell you. The job was done by civil servants, it has always been done by civil servants. The president does not sit in a ministry, he doesn’t know what’s going on in a ministry or what they need or do not need.
“The argument can be that the buck stops at his desk. I agree with that. He must take responsibility. But, the point is that, he delegated. Under the Constitution he has the right to delegate his work to ministers. And he delegated the issue of budget and planning to the Minister of Budget and Planning.
“And once you delegate, the assumption is that you’re doing the work of the President, and that’s what delegation means, and its in the Constitution. And that’s what he’s done.
“Where I think the ball was dropped, I think it was with the minister of budget and planning. Because after the civil servants, whether Intentionally or not intentionally, did what they did, it was for the Minister of Budget and Planning to vet and scrutinize those things before coming to the House, or the National Assembly. It’s not for the President to do,” Gbajabiamila said.
He assured the students that President Buhari is on top of the situation, noting that: “don’t forget that the President was the first to raise the alarm, that it looks like there is a budget mafia.”
“Am sure things we get better as we move along. The problem of Nigeria is multi-faceted, the President is dealing with one thing and he expect that the people he has appointed should able to deal with other things,” he added.

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