BY BEN AGANDE
The insistence by the Presidency that the National Assembly prunes its budget by more than N130 million may have been responsible for the delay in the signing of the 2011 budget by the president, Vanguard has learnt.

Sources at the National Assembly and the Presidency told Vanguard that a meeting between members of the National Assembly and the officials of the executive arm of government to resolve the matter ended in a stalemate following the insistence by the executive arm of government that some provisions of the budget especially those of the National Assembly were unimplementable as they were passed.

One of the source who does not want to be named because he is not authorised to speak on record on the matter accused the executive of trying to blackmail the National Assembly before the Nigerian people.

Several calls to the spokesman for the Senate, Senator Ayogu Eze, to comment on the matter went unanswered.

According to Vanguard findings, apart from the presidency’s grouse with the figures of the National Assembly, “the presidency is not happy with some of the provisions allocated to some ministries and agencies.”