Finally, after three revisions of the 2015-2017 Medium Term Expenditure Framework and Fiscal Strategy Paper (MTEF/FSP), President Goodluck Jonathan laid the 2015 Appropriation Bill before the Senate last Wednesday.
It was devoid of any fanfare or excitement hitherto associated with such exercise. In fact, the president didn’t even put up any appearance. The budget was laid on his behalf by his Coordinating Minister of the Economy and Finance Minister, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala.
That would be the second time in a row that the president would, in a departure from convention, not physically present the budget before lawmakers. The convention since 1999 had been that a sitting president would seize the opportunity of the budget presentation to present the roadmap, which his government t would undertake in the next 12 months.
This time around, the MTEF/FSP, which ought to have been considered and transmitted back to the president, upon which the new budget would then be prepared, had just arrived the National Assembly when the Finance Minister brought the budget!
Senate President David Mark has already given the direction in which the budget would go. Shortly before the chamber went on its Yuletide recess, Mark directed the appropriate committees on the budget to start work immediately and also announced that on resumption, two days would be devoted to debating the budget.
Perish any thought of a new national budget this year though as work would only start on the budget in January 2015.
