Why budget 2016 can't be passed as promised

– The revelations of the fraudulent and incompetently prepared 2016 national budget is the latest controversy rocking the nation

– The National Assembly claims the 2016 budget presented by President Muhammadu Buhari is full of mistakes, inconsistencies and other anomalies

– At the beginning of the year, that same budget had been declared ‘missing’ and now its passage has been postponed indefinitely

– As controversy continues to trail the budget, the anti-corruption fight is still ongoing and the EFCC is making more arrests

Today, February 10, major Nigerian dailies are focused on various issues such as the postponement of the passage of the 2016 budget, EFCC arrests and terror alert 

at the presidential villa.

On the front page of Vanguard is ‘Budget 2016 full of errors, can’t be passed – NASS’.

The two arms of the National Assembly, the Senate and House of Assembly said yesterday, that the 2016 budget could not be passed on February 25 as earlier promised because it was full of errors.

According to Senator Danjuma Goje, the chairman, Senate Committee on Appropriation, and his House of Representatives counterpart, Jibrin Abdulmumin, said passing the budget will be impossible because of the many errors.

Abdulmumin said the two committees would have to do a proper clean up of the budget.

The Guardian reports that the confusion surrounding the budget 2016 is being compounded by the inability of top government officials, including permanent secretaries, who are accounting officers in federal ministries, to offer acceptable 

explanations to lawmakers at budget defence sessions.

The Guardian front page, February 10, 2016

For example, Professor Isaac Adewole, the minister of Health outrightly disowned what he was confronted with at the National Assembly. He said the provisions of the budget before the National Assembly were in contrast to the priorities of the health sector as contained in the original budget it prepared.

On its part, Catholic Secretariat of Nigeria in a statement signed by Rev. Fr. Evaritus Bassey, executive secretary criticized federal government officials for the business-as-usual attitude being displayed in the preparation and presentation of the 2016 budget proposal by President Buhari.

On the front page of The Punch, is a report on the arrest of Air Vice Marshal R.A. Ojuawo, a serving senior officer of the Nigerian Air Force in connection with the $2.1bn arms purchase scandal.

The Punch front page, February 10, 2016

He was arrested by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, on his way out of the country.

Ojuawo was said to have been invited by the commission a few weeks ago and he had honoured the invitation. He was interrogated and was allowed to go, only to be stopped from traveling on Sunday.

The Nation reports that the Directorate of State Services (DSS) foiled a plot by a syndicate to steal N4.5 billion from the federal government’s Treasury Single Account (TSA).

The Nation front page, February 10, 2016

DSS spokesman Tony Opuiyo, said: “The gang was led by one Sunny Okoh, a hacker who worked in collaboration with the trio of Uwem Udo Ekpo, a Chief Programme Analyst in the OAGF, Maxwell Ekene, a retired security operative and Dozie Egwu, based in Malaysia and who is now at large.”

He said the suspects had been handed over to the EFCC for further investigations and prosecution.

Meanwhile, Daily Sun reports that the presidency has ordered for extra security measures to be put in place inside Aso Rock to forestall any terrorists attack

Daily Sun front page, February 10, 2016

Bashir Abubakar, the Chief Security Officer (CSO) to the president said the order was in response to sudden attacks in other parts of the world when terrorists hide inside tinted or hijacked vehicles to hit targets.

He said all vehicles entering the Presidential Villa, including those of highly placed persons, must be thoroughly checked, henceforth and drivers in tinted cars who refuse to wind down at security checkpoints would no longer be tolerated.

Complete Sports front page, February 10, 2016