Blame yourself for delay in passage of Budget – Dogara to Buhari

Speaker Yakubu Dogara has stated that President Muhammadu Buhari should be blamed for the delay in the passage of the 2019 budget.

Buhari had yesterday placed the blame on the leadership of the national assembly saying:

“I told them, how do they feel to hold the country to ransom for seven months without passing a budget? I said, personally they are not hurting me, they were hurting the country. So really in terms of patriotism, I think I rated them very, very low indeed.”

In reaction, Dogara issued a statement absolving the leadership of the national assembly. It reads:

“His first budget was the 2016 budget, which was submitted on December 22, 2015, exactly nine days to the end of the fiscal year.

“The minimum time the National Assembly requires to pass budget is three months. But he presented it just nine days to 2016’ and that ‘what Nigerians didn’t know and the President won’t say is that the Executive through the various ministries continued to propose additional projects to be included in the 2018 budget even as at April and May which further delayed the passage of the 2018 budget. These were communicated officially and if anyone is in doubt, the letters are there with the dates they were written and received. But here’s Buhari blaming the National Assembly.’