President Muhammadu Buhari said Thursday in Washington DC that he will
critically review the 2016 Appropriation Bill passed by the National
Assembly before assenting to it.
Speaking at a meeting with the United States Secretary of State, Mr. John
Kerry, President Buhari said that in view of the controversial alteration
and padding of the budget proposals, he needed to review the appropriation
bill to be certain that its contents tallied with the authentic budget
proposal presented to the National Assembly.
“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,” the
President said.
Declaring that his administration will continue to vigorously prosecute
its war against corruption, President Buhari sought and received an
assurance from Mr. Kerry that the United States Government will facilitate
the repatriation of all stolen Nigerian funds found within the American
banking system.
“It will greatly help our country if you assist us to recover all our
stolen funds which we can establish to be within your financial system,”
the President told Mr. Kerry.
Responding, the Secretary of State said that he has been told that the
stolen Nigerian funds were in “billions of dollars”.
“It’s not easy to hide that amount of money and we are pretty good in
tracing them,” Mr Kerry assured President Buhari, adding that relevant
United States Government Officials will meet with the Chairman of
Nigeria’s Economic and Financial Crimes Commission to discuss further
cooperation in that regard.
Mr. Kerry applauded the Buhari Administration’s success in rolling back
the Boko Haram insurgency, saying that the United States will continue to
give Nigeria all possible support to ensure that the terrorist sect is
finally eliminated as a threat to national and regional security.
The Secretary of State also praised President Buhari’s clear order that
Nigeria’s Armed Forces must show greater regard for the human rights of
persons in the theatre of operations against Boko Haram.
Acknowledging that the United States has been of great help to his
administration in the retraining and re-equipping of the Nigerian Armed
Forces that has resulted in the significant success already achieved
against Boko Haram, President Buhari said that 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,” the
President told Mr. Kerry.