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President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua wants to use the budget as a key to his political revival – but business and voters are sceptical

Calculated and recalculated according to the wild swings of the global oil market, the 2009 budget is almost up there with the election tribunal and the cabinet reshuffle as one of Nigeria’s longest-running political sagas. President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua wants to use the budget to break political inertia, so he will preside over the first reading in the National Assembly on 27 November and try to steer it through the two houses by the end of the year. That looks difficult, given the government’s diminished local and international authority. Such problems simply embolden awkward (that is, most) Senators and Representatives to slow the passage of the budget....

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President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua wants to use the budget as a key to his political revival – but business and voters are sceptical

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