Nigeria’s federal minister for finance, Kemi Adeosu, has been slammed by Nigerian lawmakers for choosing to approve the budgets of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC).
The lawmakers through the Vice Chairman of the Senate Committee on Communications, Senator Solomon Adeola, reacted to the briefing of the minister after the first Federal Executive Council meeting in the year, Adeola (APC, Lagos West) said under the NCC Act, only the National Assembly is empowered to consider and approve the budget of the commission.
The senator said any attempt by the Minister of Finance and the supervising minister to approve the budget of NCC would amount to a breach of the law and an encroachment on the function and power of the national legislature.
“I am surprised that the minister was quoted as including NCC among other agencies it would require to submit budgets for her and other supervising ministers to approve.
“As well intentioned as this may seem in the effort to generate revenue and block leakages, it is a flagrant contravention of the NCC Act as well as usurping the power of the National Assembly to approve the budget of NCC,” he stated in a statement by his media aide, Chief Kayode Odunaro.
What is wrong with the budget?