According to a report by Daily Trust, the2016 budget proposal submitted to the National Assembly by President Buhari on December 22nd is missing. The disappearance of the budget document was announced by Senator Ali Ndume during a closed door session that lasted 90 minutes today January 12th. This comes amid rumors that the budget was withdrawn from the Legislature by the Presidency. The Senators were supposed to commence the consideration of the N6.08tr budget today.
Senior Special Assistant to President Buhari on Media and Publicity, Shehu Garba has asked Nigerians to direct all their questions about the missing soft and hard copies of the 2016 budget to the National Assembly.
According to Garba, nobody can withdraw the budget from the National Assembly except President Buhari. Senator Ali Ndume had announced to his colleagues during plenary today that the budget was missing.
"Nobody, except the president, can withdraw the budget. As far as we know, he (the president) has not 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", Shehu said.
According to The Punch, Saraki and Buhari met at the presidential villa in Abuja but the former Kwara state governor refused to disclosed details of their meeting to state house correspondents who had thronged the premises of the villa to know details of the meeting.
After exchanging pleasantries with the Director-General of the Department of State Security (DSS), Lawal Daura, who was also in the Presidential Villa to also confer with Buhari, Saraki had showed interest in answering questions by journalists.
But when he was asked about the report that the budget was missing, Saraki expressed surprise and refused to comment. Instead, he just laughed slightly before rushing into his waiting car without answering the question.
In another news, Channels TV had an interview with the spokesperson of the House of Representative who gave an insight to what happened. " The Budget is not missing, when the clerk of the house counted the copies, he realizes that the available copies was not enough to go round the members" " I think that was what sparked the rumour that the budget was missing" he said.
The National Assembly also debunked speculations that the 2016 budget was missing, and assured that the Senate and the House of Representatives are in the process of making copies of the money Bill available for the 109 senators and 360 members of the House.
The lawmakers added that they are determined to pass the bill as soon as possible.
Describing the speculations of a missing budget as laughable, the chairman of the Senate Committee on Media and Publicity, Senator Abdullahi Sabi, said that the contents of the 2016 budget were carefully drafted to enhance and drive the change agenda of the present administration.
He added that the senators were eager to pass the budget so that implementation would commence immediately so as to deliver the dividends of democracy to the electorate.
The Senate had reported exclusively that deliberations on the 2016 budget would kick-start next Tuesday and that this week would be used to make copies available to lawmakers.
The Senate spokesman said, “There is no such thing; it is laughable for anybody to insinuate that the 2016 budget is missing; it is the figment of the imagination of those carrying such rumour. “We, as a Senate, are presently concentrating on making copies of the budget available to every senator. We are getting ready to commence deliberations on the budget and we are enthusiastic and looking forward to a quick passage so that the president would commence implementation in such a way that the electorate would begin to reap the dividends and benefits of democracy.“So it is not true that the budget is missing; it is a rumour.
We deal with facts here and the fact is that no budget is missing,” Senator Sabi declared. President Muhammadu Buhari had submitted the 2016 budget to a joint session of the National Assembly on 22nd December, 2015.Shortly after the presentation, the National Assembly proceeded on a three- week end of the year and Christmas break.
In a related development, the leadership of the House has denied story of 2016 budget theft from the National Assembly doing the rounds, saying that original copy of the Appropriation Bill as presented to NASS was intact and with the management of the Assembly. The House also said that the reproduced copies of the budget will be distributed to members today ahead of the consideration of the estimates at the various committee levels beginning next week.The spokesman of the House, Hon. Abdulrazak Namdas, who spoke to LEADERSHIP last night through his deputy, Hon. Jonathan Gaza Gbefwi, said the rumour of budget theft or missing was unthinkable, wondering why it was fabricated in the first place.“The budget is intact and, in fact, they even plan to begin to distribute copies to members tomorrow (today) to begin to analyse; so wherever that (rumour) is coming from, I don’t know. So, it’s all a lie,” he said.
During its first plenary in the year 2016, Saraki said "the Senate will be working together with the leadership of the executive to begin the process of rebuilding the North East and rehabilitating the traumatized victims of terrorism in our country.“You would recall that in June 2015, after the elections, we started the journey to change the way we make laws by seeking to set for ourselves priorities and aspirations designed to ensure that the activities of the 8th Senate impact,” Saraki declared.
“Our vision is to substantially enhance the economic wellbeing, liberty and safety of our people. It is my earnest hope that the period of recess just concluded has afforded us all more opportunity to reflect on this enormous task ahead as we now enter into the business end of delivering on our agenda.
2016 must be the year of transparency and delivery.”According to him, the lawmakers must demonstrate to the Nigerian people who put them in office that they were working in their interest to ensure a progressive and inclusive national development plan.“The overarching objective of our agenda remains to work with the executive arm to find solution to economic stagnation, wastefulness, discrimination, unemployment, insecurity, corruption and impunity. We cannot afford wastages.”He called for the support of senators, saying: “We cannot do it alone; we need your cooperation especially on information and we will play our part. It is on this balance of efficacy and accountability that I wish the Senate to be judged in 2016.“A Senate in slumber cannot meet the aspirations of a restless nation. A Senate sealed from those whom it is accountable to cannot legitimately ask for their trust,” Saraki declared.
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