Parliamentary row delays Nigeria budget presentation

By Camillus Eboh

ABUJA (Reuters) - The presentation of Nigeria's 2010 budget has been delayed by a row between the two chambers of parliament over where President Umaru Yar'Adua should present the spending plans, officials said on Thursday.

Yar'Adua had been due to present the budget proposals for next year to a joint session of the Senate and House of Representatives but a dispute broke out late on Wednesday over which chamber should host the presentation.

"The budget is ready but the president will not be coming to the National Assembly to present it today," said Senator Abba Aji, presidential liaison officer at the National Assembly.

"The president will not come until both chambers of the National Assembly put themselves in order," he told reporters.

Local media speculated that the president might send the budget proposals to parliament with a covering letter rather than appearing in person but a presidential aide said that would be against the law and he was waiting for a new date to be set.

Yar'Adua is expected to seek approval to breach a 3 percent deficit target for the second year in a row when he finally does present the spending plans for sub-Saharan Africa's second biggest economy, government sources have said.

The latest draft discussed with the cabinet on Wednesday suggests the president will propose aggregate spending of 4.07 trillion naira, a sharp rise which would push the country's deficit to 4.87 percent of GDP, one source said.

That would again mean sub-Saharan Africa's second biggest economy breaching a budget deficit target of 3 percent set under a 2007 fiscal responsibility act.