FG - Nigerian Senate
It was all noisy yesterday at a closed session of the Senate, The Nation learnt .
The upper chamber insisted that it would not go back on its position on the 2016 budget.
The lawmakers also asked the Presidency to submit a supplementary budget to cover the controversial N60 billion Lagos – Calabar railway if it felt strongly about it.
A source at the session told our correspondent that the heated argument ensued when some senators attempted to make an issue out of the explanation on the Lagos – Calabar railway.
According to the insider, one of the Senators told his colleagues how he was being threatened over the explanation he gave on the controversial project.
He noted that some senators felt that they were not carried along “before certain decisions were taken on the budget”.
He added: “When frayed nerves calmed down, a particular committee chairman of northern extraction was mandated to go and apologise to the senator who reported being threatened.”
However, Chairman, Senate Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Senator Aliyu Sabi Abdullahi, dismissed the information of wrangling among the lawmakers over their position on the budget
Abdullahi, noted that despite the row over the budget, “there is no controversy.”
He said the Senate was guided by constitutional provisions in taking its position on the budget.
Abdullahi said: “You will recall I issued a press statement yesterday on behalf of the Senate to make our position very clear with respect to the issue of the budget and let me make it very clear that we issued that statement simply to clarify the situation and not to confront any authority nor to threaten anybody.
“We are a democratic institution and whatever we do we remain guided by the grand norm of the country, which is the constitution.
“Today, we have resumed plenary, having come back from our recess and, of course, we went into executive session, which is the normal practice to welcome one another and discuss issues that we believe pertain to the burning issues on ground in this case the issue of the 2016 budget and the smooth workings of the senate and the National Assembly.
“What we issued yesterday remains our position; today all we did was to confirm what exactly is the true picture of the situation and in my capacity as a spokesman of the Senate, I did not go to press with falsehood.
“I have to verify my facts, I have to get my facts and to speak on these facts; and I think we have made that point very clear and we would definitely remain guided by the tenets of the Constitution.
“One thing that is obvious is that yes we have passed the budget, Nigerians are asking what next for us; what is important now is for the budget to be signed.
“The constitution has taken note of this kind of scenario where you may have omissions or shortfalls of allocations and Section 81 of the constitution is very clear on what you need to do, which is to sign the budget and then submit a supplementary appropriation.
“I want to assure you that the Senate is not unmindful of the cries of Nigerians. That we said for example the Lagos-Calabar rail project was not in the budget does not in any way undermine the fact that it is a very, very important project for this nation to embark on and so the National Assembly, the Senate is open, if the executive brings a supplementary appropriations with respect to this and any other issue that they feel very strongly about, we are ready and willing to consider such, but the most important point to note is that we want to remain guided by the provisions of the constitution.
“I think if we do that, all this raging controversies will be off our back and we can all concentrate and put our energies to begin the process of implementation of the 2016 budget so that those dividends of democracy, the youth unemployment issue, the empowerment of women, the social intervention programme, the infrastructural programmes, the agricultural programmes, and all the other projects that we know will kick start the Nigerian economy can begin to be implemented.”
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