Buhari acknowledges 2016 budget ‘confusion’, sends corrected version to national assembly

President Muhammadu Buhari has submitted a corrected version of the 2016 budget to the national assembly, after acknowledging that there was “confusion” over corrections to the version of the document he earlier submitted.

In a letter read on the floor of senate by Bukola Saraki, senate president, on Tuesday, Buhari asked the national assembly to work with the corrected version.

‪“It will be recalled that on Tuesday, 22 December, 2015, I presented my 2016 budget proposals to the joint sitting of the national assembly. I submitted a draft bill accompanied by a schedule of details,” Buhari said in the letter.

“At the time of submission, we indicated that because the details had just been produced, we would have had to check to ensure that there were no errors in the detailed breakdown contained in the schedule.

“That has since been completed and I understand that the corrections have been submitted.

“The national assembly would therefore have the details as submitted on the 22nd and a copy containing the corrections submitted last week. It appears that this has led to some confusion.

“In this regard, please find attached the corrected version. This is the version the national assembly should work with as my 2016 budget estimates. The draft bill remains the same and there are no changes in any of the figures.”

After the senate had adopted the new version of the budget, the senate president announced that debate on it would commence on Wednesday.

The senate is at present in a closed-session with Godwin Emiefele, governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), who is expected to explain the reason for the sustained fall of the naira to members of the upper legislative chamber.