There are strong indications yesterday that this year’s national budget submitted to the joint session of the National Assembly on December 22, 2015 by President Muhammadu Buhari, may be missing. This is even as Senate President Bukola Saraki visited Buhari at the Presidential Villa, yesterday.
Although Senate spokesman, Abdullahi Sabi, did not explicitly deny or confirm the claim when he spoke with our correspondent yesterday, Daily Sun, however, learnt that the Senate Committee Chairmen on Finance and Appropriation respectively, revealed during an earlier closed-door session that they were unaware of the whereabouts of the 2016 budget.
A senator, who attended the session, told our correspondent that the disappearance of the document was announced by the Senate Leader, Ali Ndume. The session lasted for over 90 minutes.
The Senate, as well as the House of Representatives were supposed to commence the consideration of the budget yesterday, but instead, adjourned after it considered only one motion. During the brief plenary, Senate President did not make any reference to the supposed consideration of the budget. The Senate Leader, who ordinarily should have made the announcement, also kept mum about it.
But the Senate spokesman said it was too early to start spreading rumours, adding that members just resumed and therefore, needed more time to settle down. He said as soon as the Senate was duly briefed on the true state of affairs, he will be in a better position to address some of the issues raised so far. “The issue is that we are preparing to work on the budget. I think you will do us well if you wait for us to reveal the status. I do not have any business with rumours. I have business with the rules of what we want to do. There are ethics of every single organisation.
“If you have spoken to some senators and they do not want to mention their names, it means they do not believe in what they are saying. I am the Senate spokesman. We just resumed today (yesterday) and there are some things we need to put in place.
“We need to find explanations to some things and get the situation reports. Wait until we have the situational report. That was part of the reasons we did not speak with the Press today (yesterday) after the plenary. You do not just come out and say things.
“Even if there is a rumour, you have to come out and investigate it. We are not supposed to live on rumours. Remember some of you (journalists) have called us on what we intend to do upon resumption and these are things we are putting in place. The consideration of the 2016 budget and constitutional amendments are the issues we are focusing on. We need to get the status first. You need to give us the benefits of the doubt. We are just returning and we need to settle down,” Sabi noted.
Reports about the missing 2016 budget broke out over a week ago. There had been claims that President Buhari withdrew the budget to rejig it in tandem with the current economic realities.
While the National Assembly feigned ignorance of the withdrawal of the budget, the Presidency however, through the Special Assistant to the President on National Assembly Matters ( Senate), Senator Ita Enang, said the document was with the two chambers of the National Assembly.
Meanwhile, Saraki yesterday met behind close-doors with Buhari inside the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
The agenda of the meeting which lasted about 30 minutes, was not made public. When approached by State House correspondents at the end of the meeting to comment on the missing budget, Saraki exclaimed: ha! ha!! ha!!!’ as he ran into his official car.
The alleged disappearance of budget was reported by an online medium.
Meanwhile, the Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, has distanced the Presidency from the purported missing budget.
In a short email responding to enquiries about the budget, Shehu said President Buhari is the only one authorised to ask for the withdrawal of the budget if need be, and he has not done that.
He urged the media to direct their enquiries to the appropriate quarters which is the National Assembly where copies of the budget were submitted in hundreds of copies.
“Nobody except the President can withdraw the budget. As far as we know, he hasn’t done that.
“The copies in their hundreds have been delivered to both chambers of the National Assembly.
“By tradition, once the budget is submitted, it ceases to be our property. Enquiries as to where it is should be directed to the appropriate quarters,” he said.
In a related development, despite the insinuation that the budget is missing, the House of Representatives Committee Chairman on Media and Publicity, Abdulrazak Namdas, has said the document is available in the Lower Chamber.
Namdas described the reports as fabricated, saying reproduced copies of the bill will be shared to all members by tomorrow (today).
“I can tell you that 400 copies of the budget will be distributed to members tomorrow (today).
“I really don’t know where all these talks about the budget being missing is coming from. They are forged stories because by tomorrow (today), members will be given copies of the budget,” Namdas said.
He also dismissed insinuations that the House didn’t start work on the budget during its first sitting yesterday because the document couldn’t be found.
He said: “What people need to understand is that there is no way we could have been given copies of the budget at home.
“Besides, it is not members that make copies of the budget, it is the management of the National Assembly that handles it and they, like members also recently resumed. But they are now ready with copies of the budget which will be distributed to members to study and prepare to debate it,” he said.
The Senate, as well as the House of Representatives were supposed to commence the consideration of the budget yesterday, but instead, adjourned after it considered only one motion. During the brief plenary, Senate President did not make any reference to the supposed consideration of the budget. The Senate Leader, who ordinarily should have made the announcement, also kept mum about it.
But the Senate spokesman said it was too early to start spreading rumours, adding that members just resumed and therefore, needed more time to settle down. He said as soon as the Senate was duly briefed on the true state of affairs, he will be in a better position to address some of the issues raised so far. “The issue is that we are preparing to work on the budget. I think you will do us well if you wait for us to reveal the status. I do not have any business with rumours. I have business with the rules of what we want to do. There are ethics of every single organisation.
“If you have spoken to some senators and they do not want to mention their names, it means they do not believe in what they are saying. I am the Senate spokesman. We just resumed today (yesterday) and there are some things we need to put in place.
“We need to find explanations to some things and get the situation reports. Wait until we have the situational report. That was part of the reasons we did not speak with the Press today (yesterday) after the plenary. You do not just come out and say things.
“Even if there is a rumour, you have to come out and investigate it. We are not supposed to live on rumours. Remember some of you (journalists) have called us on what we intend to do upon resumption and these are things we are putting in place. The consideration of the 2016 budget and constitutional amendments are the issues we are focusing on. We need to get the status first. You need to give us the benefits of the doubt. We are just returning and we need to settle down,” Sabi noted.
Reports about the missing 2016 budget broke out over a week ago. There had been claims that President Buhari withdrew the budget to rejig it in tandem with the current economic realities.
While the National Assembly feigned ignorance of the withdrawal of the budget, the Presidency however, through the Special Assistant to the President on National Assembly Matters ( Senate), Senator Ita Enang, said the document was with the two chambers of the National Assembly.
Meanwhile, Saraki yesterday met behind close-doors with Buhari inside the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
The agenda of the meeting which lasted about 30 minutes, was not made public. When approached by State House correspondents at the end of the meeting to comment on the missing budget, Saraki exclaimed: ha! ha!! ha!!!’ as he ran into his official car.
The alleged disappearance of budget was reported by an online medium.
Meanwhile, the Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, has distanced the Presidency from the purported missing budget.
In a short email responding to enquiries about the budget, Shehu said President Buhari is the only one authorised to ask for the withdrawal of the budget if need be, and he has not done that.
He urged the media to direct their enquiries to the appropriate quarters which is the National Assembly where copies of the budget were submitted in hundreds of copies.
“Nobody except the President can withdraw the budget. As far as we know, he hasn’t done that.
“The copies in their hundreds have been delivered to both chambers of the National Assembly.
“By tradition, once the budget is submitted, it ceases to be our property. Enquiries as to where it is should be directed to the appropriate quarters,” he said.
In a related development, despite the insinuation that the budget is missing, the House of Representatives Committee Chairman on Media and Publicity, Abdulrazak Namdas, has said the document is available in the Lower Chamber.
Namdas described the reports as fabricated, saying reproduced copies of the bill will be shared to all members by tomorrow (today).
“I can tell you that 400 copies of the budget will be distributed to members tomorrow (today).
“I really don’t know where all these talks about the budget being missing is coming from. They are forged stories because by tomorrow (today), members will be given copies of the budget,” Namdas said.
He also dismissed insinuations that the House didn’t start work on the budget during its first sitting yesterday because the document couldn’t be found.
He said: “What people need to understand is that there is no way we could have been given copies of the budget at home.
“Besides, it is not members that make copies of the budget, it is the management of the National Assembly that handles it and they, like members also recently resumed. But they are now ready with copies of the budget which will be distributed to members to study and prepare to debate it,” he said.
source:sunnewsonline
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