By Precious Orokotan
Bayo Onanuga, Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, has shed light on the decision of the National Assembly to extend the lifespan of the capital section of the 2023 Supplementary Budget.
Onanuga revealed that the extension was granted with the aim of ensuring the complete and full implementation of the budget, so as to maximize the government’s ability to deliver on its promised initiatives.
This move, however, has been subject to scrutiny and criticism, with civil society group Budget recently voicing concerns about the Senate’s decision to extend the budget lifespan, resulting in a situation where three national budgets are currently operating in parallel.
Bayo Onanuga responded to the criticism from BudgIT by defending the National Assembly’s decision, stating that it was done with the primary intention of ensuring that the proposed projects in the budget were carried out.
According to Onanuga, the Senate had previously elucidated that the reason behind their intervention was to provide financial support to those projects in the earlier budgets that had not yet been implemented due to funding constraints.
“The situation is not a cause for concern, as the National Assembly has clarified its rationale for extending the lifespan of the budget. The truth of the matter is, there are numerous projects in the 2023 Budget and the 2023 Supplementary Budget that are yet to be executed.
The objective of this intervention is to ensure that these projects are implemented as planned, despite their inclusion in previous budgets,” Onanuga stated.
To illustrate the rationale behind the National Assembly’s intervention, consider, for instance, the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security, which received allocations in both the 2023 Budget and the Supplementary Budget for various projects.
Sadly, the necessary funding for these projects had not been released, impeding their implementation. In light of this situation, the proposed action ensures that these projects can be carried out, despite the fact that they were initially included in previous budgets, Onanuga explained.
The fundamental aim behind the National Assembly’s decision was to ensure that projects included in the capital budget of previous years, which were left uncompleted or not even started, could be carried forward and given the necessary funding in order to be completed.It’s important to note that this was the driving force behind their decision, Onanuga remarked.