Political Briefs
–
PRESIDENT Muhammadu Buhari on Thursday, March 31, in the United States declared that he would not sign the 2016 Appropriation Bill, passed into law by the National Assembly, last week, unless he critically reviewed it.
Buhari, who spoke at a meeting with John Kerry, the US secretary of State, in Washington DC, said in view of the controversial alteration and padding of the budget proposals, he needed to review the document to be certain that its contents tallied with the authentic budget proposal presented to the National Assembly. The president said: “Some bureaucrats removed what we put in the proposal and replaced it with what they wanted. “I have to look at the bill that has been passed by the National Assembly, ministry by ministry, to be sure that what has been brought back for me to sign is in line with our original submission.”
Buhari who assured that his administration would continue to vigorously prosecute its war against corruption, therefore, sought and received an assurance from Kerry that the US government would facilitate the repatriation of all stolen Nigerian funds found within the US banking system.
In the same breath, the Nigerian president acknowledged that the US had been of immense assistance to his administration in the retraining and re-equipping of the Nigerian Armed Forces which had resulted in the significant success already achieved against Boko Haram. He said the federal government was now working very hard to restore full normalcy in the North Eastern states. “Boko Haram no longer holds any local government area. We are reconstructing damaged facilities and preparing the police to take over and reassert civilian control over areas affected by the insurgency,” he said.
Responding, Kerry said he had been told that the stolen Nigerian funds were in “billions of dollars”. He said: “It’s not easy to hide that amount of money and we are pretty good in tracing them.” The US secretary of State assured President Buhari that relevant US government officials would meet with the chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, to discuss further cooperation in that regard.
Kerry applauded the Buhari administration’s success in rolling back the Boko Haram insurgency, saying the US would continue to give Nigeria all possible support to ensure that the terrorist sect was finally eliminated.
— Apr 11, 2016 @ 01:00 GMT
|
Tags:
