He had accused the House of Representatives of padding the budget and stated that he did not trust the House to pass the amendments that he made to the budget. He therefore only reluctantly signed the budget after having made several deductions especially from the budget of the National Assembly, in order to end the six-month long impasse.
The budget has now been passed back to the National Assembly as an Act so that the presidential amendments can be effected.
The total cost of the 2011 budget is N4,407,052,300,582 (US$28.142 billion. Of this amount:
N387,824,288,743 (US$2.467 billion) is for Statutory Transfers
N495,096,682,115 (US$3.162 billion) is for Debt Service
N2,401,330,677,943 (US$15.34 billion) is for Recurrent
Expenditure; and N1,122,800,651,781 (US$7.170 billion) is for Capital Expenditure.
The unpopular Minister of Petroleum Resources, Dieziani Alison-Madueke, is desperately lobbying to be retained in her portfolio in the president's new cabinet. As part of her lobbying effort she recently sponsored a paid advertisement in national dailies purported to be from a national women's group, praising her achievements as the first female minister in the influential and highly lucrative Ministry of Petroleum Resources.
Insiders and many oil industry insiders are opposed to her because they are fed up with having to silently suffer through what they believe is her unprofessional and demanding approach. She is famed for throwing tantrums and exploiting her personal relationship with Jonathan to her advantage. She has been embroiled in several “cash for approval” scandals.
For more news and expert analysis about Nigeria, please see Nigeria Focus and Nigeria Politics & Security.
© 2011 Menas Associates
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