Rather Than Sell National Assets Revise The Budget, Cross River Speaker Tells FG

The Speaker of the Cross River State House of Assembly, Mr. John Gaul-Lebo, has advised the Federal Government to revise the 2016 Appropriation rather than sell national assets.

Speaking with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Calabar on Wednesday, Gaul-Lebo said national assets should not be sold to raise funds to bail the country out of its current recession.

He suggested that rather than sell the national assets, the Federal Government should revise the 2016 national budget from N6.06 trillion to N4 trillion. He said that the suggestion became necessary following the present economic recession and the challenges of funding the 2016 Budget.

He called on President Muhammadu Buhari to work with the National Assembly on the need to revise the budget for optimal implementation.

“If the economy is in recession and then the budget that we have is N6 trillion, the first thing to do is to revise the budget to an amount that is realisable.

“Mr. President should do a budget priority and identify those projects that can be funded. He should look at those projects that can re-engineer the economy and fund them adequately.

“If our budget can go down to N4 trillion that we can realise and spend, then it will be better. We should revise the budget rather than sell our national assets,’’ the speaker said.