By Jonathan Ugbal: Government House Correspondent
Cross River Governor, Senator Ben Ayade has announced that he will be signing his record 1.3 trillion Naira 2018 budget into law next week Tuesday.
Mr. Ayade disclosed this while speaking to journalists Friday in Calabar shortly after arriving at the Margaret Ekpo International Airport after spending almost three weeks touring China and India.
He said that his visit to the two countries exposed his mind to a lot of things and maintained that the budget will help “crystallize” some of his administration’s projects.
Ayade who coined a new word that threw journalists and his aides into laughter averred that: “Dont forget that the budget for this year which I will be signing into law by Tuesday is definite and very clear.
“A budget of Kinetic Crystallization. So what are we crystallizing? We are crystallizing all our concepts, our dreams, all our projects we have conceived from deep vision to infinite transposition and now we are crystallizing them.
“By this crystallization process, the projects will become manifest in a systemic escape menistemasis.”
The Governor had on November 30, 2017 presented a record breaking NGN1.3trillion 2018 budget tagged “budget of kinetic crystallization.”
This represented an almost 200 percent increase from the about NGN700 billion budget of ‘infinite transposition’ in 2017 and an almost 400 percent increase from the NGN350 billion 2016 budget of ‘deep vision.’
Despite mixed reactions trailing the budget, Mr. Ayade had explained the reason behind it while breaking ground for the construction of the Calabar Virgin city.
Following debates and the defense of the budget by Ministries, Departments, Agencies and parastatals of government, the state’s House of Assembly passed the budget with almost no alterations.
As at press time, Mr. Ayade, his deputy, Professor Ivara Esu, the speaker of the House of Assembly, Mt. John Lebo and federal legislator, Mr. Legor Idagbo and a retinue of aides departed for the Rice city for an inspection tour of equipment which arrived Calabar earlier this week after been delayed at the port since December 2017.
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