Proceedings of the House of Representatives temporarily came to a halt for 60 seconds following the news that President Muhammadu Buhari would address a joint session of the National Assembly to present the 2018 Appropriation Bill on Tuesday, November 7, 2017.
Hardly had Yakubu Dogara, Speaker, House of Representatives finished reading the letter from the President on Wednesday than the members spontaneously went loud in their dissenting voices. Thunderous shouts of “no, no, no.” filled the legislative chamber.
It was learnt that the action of the lawmakers was informed by the fact that they were not happy about the poor implementation of the 2017 budget.
But when the uproar fizzled out, Yakubu reminded the parliamentarians that they had no legal right to stop the President from addressing the joint session of the House and the Senate.
He said: ”I wish we have the constitutional right to say no. Unfortunately, we don’t have it…This House is the custodian of the constitution. The President has the right.”
This is arguably the first time President Buhari would be presenting the national budget proposal before the National Assembly in the month of November since his assumption of office in 2015.
But, Dr. Bukola Saraki, Senate President read a copy of the letter, entitled “Laying of the 2018 Budget Proposal Before the National Assembly” addressed to the Senate.
Saraki read in part: “Pursuant to Section 81 of the 1999 Constitution, may I crave the indulgence of the National Assembly to grant me the slot of 1400 hours on Tuesday, 7thNovember, 2017 to formally address the joint session of and lay before the National Assembly the 2018 budget proposal.”
Ahead of the presentation of the 2018 Appropriation Bill, President Buhari had last month forwarded the 2018-2020 Medium Term Expenditure Framework, MTEF, and Fiscal Strategy Paper, FSP to the lawmakers.
Buhari had in the MTEF document to both chambers, disclosed that the Executive was proposing an oil benchmark of $45 per barrel for the 2018 budget, a production target of 2.3 million barrels per day, mbpd, and an exchange rate of $305 to the dollar.
He explained that the parameters were prepared against the backdrop of generally adverse global economic uncertainty as well as fiscal challenges and recovery in the domestic economy to ensure that planned spending was set at prudent and sustainable levels, consistent with government’s overall developmental objectives and inclusive growth.
Meanwhile, Dr. Ahmad Lawan, Senate Leader, said yesterday the National Assembly was not satisfied with the level of implementation of the 2017 budget by the executive, hoping that before the end of the year’s budget circle, much would have been achieved on the implementation of the budget.
The Senate Leader, who stated this in an interview with State House correspondents after a closed-door meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, also said the National Assembly was working towards ensuring that any budget from the executive would be implementable and fair to all parts of the country in terms of projects allocation.
On his visit to the President alongside Senate Majority Whip, Prof. Olusola Adeleye, hee said: “This is a private visit to the villa. It is not an official visit therefore I will choose to keep the reasons private but you know as principal officers of the National Assembly this is our administration and this villa is also ours.
“So as APC (All Progressives Congress) leaders, we are free to come here to interact with the people holding forth here, the President,Chief of Staff and others working for this administration.”
Speaking on the implementation of 2017 was satisfactory, Lawan said, “We are still working to ensure that implementation of the 2017 budget continues. So far, it hasn’t been able to be implemented the way we thought it would. You remember that there are certain things that you don’t just get them to happen at once, some processes must take place before you finally have projects kicking off.
“So, I believe between now and when the 2017 budget circle will be completed much would have been done and achieved.”
On the government target to reset the budget circle from January to December and whether the National Assembly will pass the budget by December 31, he said circumstances would determine that.
“Well it 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 there is fairness, justice in the distribution of projects across the country.
“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.
“The 2017 budget took effect from June this year, if it is possible for us to complete the implementation of the budget in six months from June, so be it but that also requires that we implement the budget properly because these are projects that are supposed to bring development, relief and succour to Nigerians, and if it is not possible we shouldn’t force it on ourselves that we must terminate it.
