Budget: Yar'Adua Gives N'Assembly Conditions

As President Umaru Musa Yar�Adua and the leadership of the National Assembly meet this week over the 2008 Appropriation Bill, there are indications that the President may give assent provided the lawmakers address the areas critical to the attainment of the administration�s socio-economic goals.
President Yar�Adua withheld his assent from the harmonised Appropriation Bill following the failure of the National Assembly to furnish him with details of the budget as he had requested.
The President had opted for a detailed budget instead of the summarised document, as was the practice in the previous dispensation.
A Presidency source told THISDAY weekend that the President would use the meeting with the legislators to clearly raise his objections to the document sent to him for signing.
According to the source, �Yar�Adua�s grouse is that the National Assembly may not have taken into account some of the President�s priorities in line with overall national plan, macroeconomic stability and sector strategies, which made him to place emphasis on completing new projects rather than start new ones which could end up being abandoned. Full Story