Dino Melaye, Senator from Kogi West has said there is no need to borrow money to fund the 2018 budget.
Melaye made the remark while wondering why the federal government had
plans to borrow when some agencies were “keeping untilised funds”.
Speaking during plenary on Tuesday, the controversial lawmaker urged his colleagues to ensure that the budget is implemented.
He said, “There is no relationship between 2017 and 2018 budget.
There is an outstanding of over N1.1 billion stamp duty that has not
been remitted into the federation account yet we took Eurobond of $5.5
billion; we won’t need that if these funds were remitted,” Melaye said.
“NNPC is supposed to pay over N300 million into the federation
account, no kobo was paid by NNPC in 2016, none was paid in 2017 and we
say we are fighting corruption.
“It is time for this senate to ask principal agents of government
that are keeping government money so that it be put in the consolidated
revenue. Why are we borrowing when we have money scattered in agencies.
“Enough is enough, we must make sure that the 2017 budget is implemented.
“It is our responsibility to convert this ‘boju boju’ budget to a
budget that will be accepted in the margins of this country because
hunger has no political and all of us go to the same market.”
Recall that the Senate earlier said it has encountered difficulties at the committee levels,
hence, it would not go ahead to discuss the 2018 budget with a view to
passing it into law before the end of the year as earlier planned.