John Ameh and Sunday Aborisade, Abuja
The House of Representatives initiated moves on Wednesday to resolve the raging controversy surrounding the 2016 Appropriation Bill by delegating the Speaker, Mr. Yakubu Dogara, to meet with Buhari.
The decision was taken at a two-hour closed-door session presided over by Dogara.
The Speaker spoke on the outcome of the executive session as members reverted to open plenary.
He disclosed that the lawmakers agreed that for the sake of “overriding national interest and the prevailing economic situation” in the country, the House should “re-examine the 2016 budget.”
He added that to achieve this, the House would engage the executive in discussions to ensure that a workable and “implementable” budget was given to Nigerians.
The Chairman, House Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Mr. Abdulrazak Namdas, confirmed that the House members indeed delegated the Speaker to meet with the President.
Namdas stated, “We delegated the Speaker to go ahead and engage the executive, identify the areas of concern and report back to the House.
“If the issues of concern are of national interest, we will look at them again by accommodating them in the budget.”
Namdas added that as of Wednesday, the House had yet to receive any official notification from Buhari that he would not sign the N6.06tn budget as already passed by the National Assembly.
He explained that as “a concerned and responsible” legislature, the House felt that it owed Nigerians the duty to state its own position by clarifying that it had not committed any grievous offence.
On the controversial Lagos-Calabar rail line project, Namdas restated the position of the House that the project was not in the corrected version of the budget sent to the National Assembly by Buhari.
He added, “For the Lagos-Calabar rail line, we insist that it was never in the budget. That is not to say that the project is not good.
“If the Minister (of Transportation) said he introduced it at the committee level after the National Assembly had accepted the proposals of Mr. President, we are saying we cannot take a project of such magnitude through the back door.
“That is why we said let Mr. Speaker go to the Presidency to meet with Mr. President so that he can tell us what the real issues are with the budget.”
Buhari is out of the country on an official visit to China.
However, The PUNCH was informed by senior House members that due to the urgency of the matter, Dogara was asked to meet with Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo, who will stand in for Buhari.
One of the members said Osinbajo was in constant touch with Buhari and could easily reach out to him on the resolution of the House to have his position on the budget.
“Osinbajo is standing in for Mr. President.
The speaker can meet with him and he will reach out to Buhari. The executive must be having a list of issues it has with the budget by now. So, the speaker will meet with Osinbajo,” the source added.
The PUNCH further gathered that at the closed-door session, angry lawmakers grilled Jibrin, accusing him of hoarding information on the details of the budget from the majority of members.
Members were said to have sought to know why certain zones and states had more road projects than others.
A senior official told The PUNCH
that Jibrin spent close to one hour responding to a barrage of questions.
“There is the case of Kano and some North-West states, where funds up to N4bn were allocated to projects.
“Members are mostly unhappy with the handling of the details of the budget, especially his decision to keep them in the dark,” the official stated.
Findings showed that though some lawmakers had earlier canvassed the removal of the Kano State All Progressives Congress lawmaker as the Chairman of the Committee on Appropriation, the matter was not raised at the executive session.
However, it was learnt that Jibrin was barred from speaking to the public on House matters since he was not the designated spokesman for the House.
Investigations indicated that he was told to refrain from speaking in a manner which suggested that he was giving the official position of the House on the budget.
Namdas said while a chairman could comment on the activities of his committee, the decisions of his committee might not necessarily reflect the final position of the House on such issues.
“The person to give the official position of the House is the spokesperson, which is me, Abdulrazak Namdas,” he added. http://www.punchng.com/budget-dogara-to-meet-buhari/lalasticlala |
