2016 budget was a nasty experience, I’ve never heard of ‘padding’ – Buhari

      

President Muhammadu Buhari has described the process that finally led to the signing of the 2016 budget as “a nasty experience for us”.
Buhari said the issue of “padding” made the budget process more difficult for him and members of the Federal Executive Council, as some of them heard about it for the time.

Buhari, on Monday told State House Correspondents that: “Things were even more difficult during the budget, which you all know about.
“For somebody like me, for the first time, I heard what is called padding.

“So, really, it was a nasty experience for us. It was also a nasty experience for some of the ministers who were never in government, for them to sit down day and night to work.
“I saw them, some of them literarily lost weight because they were sleeping less, eating less and working on every kobo to be spent.”

Buhari acknowledged that the country’s reliance on one commodity, oil, had adversely affected the nation’s economy.
He said: “This is the condition we found ourselves and this change mantra had to go through hell up till yesterday.”