Nigeria-budget
   Nigeria's Obasanjo considering veto of budget: report

   LAGOS, March 31 (AFP) - Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo is
considering
vetoing the amended 2000 budget passed by parliament earlier this week
because
of a hike in spending on the assembly, the newspaper This Day reported
Friday.
   The president objects to a clause inserted into the bill raising
spending
for the year on national assembly projects to a staggering 28 billion naira
(around 280 million dollars), the paper said.
   The president also objects to a clause requiring the executive arm of
govenment to "implement the budget as passed.
   The parliament on Tuesday ended five months of waiting and approved the
2000 budget, increasing overall spending plans for the year by almost one
third, to 677 billion naira (around 6.75 billion dollars), up from 470
billion
naira as put forward by Obasanjo last year.
   The bill was passed by a joint session of the two houses of parliament
after negotiations between the two chambers.
   In separate reports, the 109-member Senate and 360-member House of
Representatives justified the increase in planned spending by pointing to
the
expected increase in oil sales revenue this year, following the
strengthening
of oil prices.
   Oil sales account for more than 95 percent of Nigeria's foreign currency
earnings and calculations made last year failed to take account of the jump
in
oil prices in recent months, officials said.
   If Obasanjo vetos the budget bill, a two thirds majority of both houses
is
required to pass it into law.
   Obasanjo's chief spokesman Doyin Okupe on Wednesday told AFP the
president
was still studying the budget as passed by the parliament and would not
want
to comment on it immediately.
   "We are still looking at all the figures," he said.
   Obasanjo was Friday on the second and last day of a visit to Kebbi State
in
northwestern Nigeria.
   The newspaper The Vanguard said Friday the president had already vetoed
amendments made to a bill setting up a commission to oversee efforts to
develop the troubled Niger Delta region and had returned it to parliament.
   The president met legislators from the oil-producing delta region on
Wednesday to discuss the bill, the newspaper said.
   pcj/ccr

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