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2018 BUDGET: Reps kick over Buhari’s planned presentation

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Some members of the House of Representatives Thursday protested President Muhammadu Buhari’s request to present the 2018 budget to a joint session of the National Assembly.

The President requested to be allowed to present the budget on Tuesday, November 7.

His request was contained in a letter that the Speaker, Yakubu Dogara, read to members during plenary.

At the Senate, the President of the Senate, Bukola Saraki, read the letter to senators without any drama.

“Pursuant to Section 81 of the 1999 Constitution, may I crave the kind indulgence of the National Assembly to grant me the slot of 1400hrs (2pm) on Tuesday, 7th of November, 2017 to formally address a joint session and lay before the National Assembly the estimates of the 2018 budget proposal,” Buhari wrote.

But at the House, Dogara had hardly completed the reading of the letter when lawmakers started screaming.

Amid the shouts of “no,” “no,” some members were heard asking, “What about the 2017 budget? Have they implemented the 2017 budget? No, take it (letter) back.”

Others also said they would prefer to receive the President by 11am and not 2pm

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But Dogara was quick to remind his colleagues that under the constitution, they could not refuse receipt of the appropriation bill from the president.

He noted that while the constitution provided that the President “shall cause the estimates of the budget to be prepared and laid” before the legislature, it did not provide that lawmakers could refuse to receive it.

“Honourable colleagues, unfortunately, the constitution does not provide that we can refuse to receive the budget estimates,” the speaker added while admitting Buhari’s letter.

From official data, the Federal Government plans to spend about N8.6tn in 2018, an increase of about 15 per cent from the N7.44tn budgeted for 2017.

The figures were contained in the 2018-2020 Medium Term Expenditure Framework and Fiscal Strategy Paper which Buhari had earlier sent to the National Assembly in compliance with the provisions of the Fiscal Responsibility Act, 2007.

Meanwhile, the Senate Leader, Ahmad Lawan, Thursday stated that the nature of the 2018 Appropriation Bill to be presented to the National Assembly would determine how soon it would be passed into law.

Lawan said this in an interview with State House correspondents shortly after he and Senator Sola Adeyeye met President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

He said although it was the desire of all stakeholders that the bill be passed latest by December 31, 2017, the federal lawmakers would do a thorough job on the document.

Lawan said, “It (passage of the budget by December 31) depends on how it goes; you know we are supposed to be working on the same page, working for the same people of Nigeria and we will like to see the National Assembly working in tandem with the executive arm of government.

“You know these things will be determined by what the budget looks like, the estimates presented to us, because naturally we always try to do a very thorough job, a very patriotic job to ensure that the budget is implementable, to ensure there is equity and there is fairness and justice in the distribution of projects across the country.”

He added, “We will like to see that done but we shouldn’t just do that at all costs, we should be looking at the benefits that could accrue from doing that and whether it is possible to just do it at once or maybe reduce the period in two phases or even more.”

 

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