2019 ELECTION BUDGET: Please suspend recess, Presidency begs Nat’l Assembly

Members of the National Assembly have been asked to suspend the ongoing recess in order to attend to President Muhammadu Buhari’s supplementary budget request.

Buhari had recently presented a N228 billion supplementary budget to the National Assembly, and urged them to re-allocate part of the N578 billion voted to the projects the lawmakers inserted into the 2018 Appropriation Act.

He had said that the N228 billion will be used to fund the supplementary budgets of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and security agencies for the conduct of the 2019 general elections.

According to the President, N164 billion would be vired to fund the polls while the balance of N78 billion would be covered by the 2019 budget.

The National Assembly had introduced 6,403 projects into the budget amounting to N578 billion, but Buhari had demanded that N64 billion be taken from the same source back to the critical projects whose allocations were cut by the lawmakers.

The matter was yet to be addressed by the lawmakers who proceeded on recess on Tuesday earlier than initially scheduled.

The lawmakers had initially scheduled to embark on holiday on Thursday, but chose to do that two days before the scheduled date following supposed security operatives’ clampdown on President of the Senate, Bukola Saraki; and Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu.

However, addressing newsmen on Thursday in Abuja, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on National Assembly Matters (Senate), Senator Ita Enang, urged the lawmakers to suspend their recess in order to address Buhari’s request.

He had cautioned that delaying the approvals would frustrate some organs of the government.

“The executive – President and ministers – will keep working with the legislature with respect due their offices and persons, and keep working with them as legislators of the Federal Republic of Nigeria who make laws for the executive to execute irrespective of their individual political decisions while leaving all options open for conciliation.

READ ALSO: BUHARI TO NIGERIANS: You can’t accuse me alone, you also share the blame for Nigeria’s problems

“We will be praying the legislature – the leadership and membership – to consider that there are many matters of very urgent nature which are pending before the legislature and unless (they are) considered, the functioning of certain institutions of the government will be hampered.

“If you recall, a lot of the funding for the 2018 budget was budgeted to come from some external sources. The request for approval to raise funds from these external sources is before the legislature and unless (it is) considered, it may hamper the level of implementation. Again, before the legislature proceeded on vacation, Mr President also laid before them the request for virement, this also will be affected,” he said.

 

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