Copies arrive N’Assembly
Omololu Ogunmade and Damilola Ogunmade in Abuja

The Senate on Tuesday reversed its decision not to consider the “corrected” version of the 2016 budget and will consequently commence debate on the Appropriation Bill today.
The decision to begin debate on the budget today was taken at a 15-minute closed-door session held by the senators before on Tuesday’s plenary after deliberating on President Muhammadu Buhari’s letter on the amendments made to the budget.
The letter asked the senators to discard the original budget he presented on December 22 and only consider the corrected version annexed to the letter.
THISDAY had exclusively reported last Sunday that following the controversies which trailed the presidency’s attempt to surreptitiously swap the original budget proposal with another version, the president had sent a letter admitting errors in the first document as well as the correction effected to the budget proposal.
The president’s letter dated January 15, 2016 and read by Senate President Bukola Saraki, confirmed that both the presidency and the House of Representatives had misled Nigerians last week when they insisted that the budget presented by Buhari remained intact and was not tampered with as claimed by the Senate.
Buhari, in his letter, said that he was aware that corrected copies of the budget had been circulated at the National Assembly last week.
The letter stated: “It will be recalled that on Tuesday, 22nd December, 2016 (sic), I presented my 2016 budget proposals to the joint sitting of the National Assembly.
“I submitted a draft bill accompanied by a schedule of details. At the time of submission, we indicated that because the details had just been produced we would have had to check to ensure that there were no errors in the detailed breakdown contained in the schedule.
“The National Assembly would therefore have the details as submitted on the 22nd and a copy containing the corrections submitted last week. It appears this has led to some confusion.
“In this regard, please find attached the corrected version. This is the version the National Assembly should work with as my 2016 budget estimates.
“The draft bill remains the same and there are no changes in any of the figures. Please accept Mr. Senate President, the assurances of my highest regards.”
Following the receipt of the president’s letter, the Senate adopted a motion reversing its decision to work solely on the document presented by Buhari on December 22 and resolved that it would now consider the corrected version.
Consequently, Saraki asked all senators to pick their own copies of the budget from the clerk of the Appropriation Committee preparatory to the debate on the budget, which he said would take place today, tomorrow and next Tuesday.
Plenary in the House, on the other hand, degenerated into a rowdy session when lawmakers bickered over Buhari’s letter.
Proceedings had commenced as usual, but the Speaker, Hon. Yakubu Dogara, did not follow the procedures of the House by transmitting any message from the president, before taking petitions.
He had announced that he would take the petitions first, before reading the letter in his possession.
It took till 11.27 am before the Speaker read the letter indicating the corrections in the budget proposal.
After it was read, the Minority Leader, Hon. Leo Ogor, raised a point of order, citing Sections 81 and 84 of the constitution, which he said do not grant powers to the president to amend the budget.
Such powers, Ogor stated, are vested in the legislature, following which he called on the lawmakers to disregard the president’s letter.
The speaker however pointed out that the letter did not seek to amend the budget, but made references to corrections, adding that nowhere in the letter was the word “amendment” used.
Following his submission, chants of “no, no, no” by opposition members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) filled the chamber, preventing the speaker from speaking for some minutes.
After calm was restored, Hon. Linus Okorie (Ebonyi PDP) observed that the speaker did not follow House procedures by reading the president’s letter after taking petitions.
Responding, the speaker said he had made a prior announcement to that effect, adding that he actually forgot the letter in his office and sent for it to be brought to him.
Despite his excuse, there was grumbling in the lower chamber over the speaker’s attempt to play down the presidency’s withdrawal of the original budget without notifying the National Assembly.
The controversy over the budget, notwithstanding, copies of the Appropriation Bill finally arrived the National Assembly complex yesterday morning.
Although it was uncertain as to where the copies were printed, a source said they were dispatched to b
About The Nigerian Blogger
0 comments :
Post a Comment