Not a joke, this is the reason the constitution and the presentation of 2010 budget is yet to move forward

Guess what the figth was about. Seating arrangement. Can you Imagine. Mr president could not present 2010 budget because of qaurels over seating arrangement in the National assembly

Nigeria we hail thee

Sources at the National Assembly told the Nigerian Tribune that the Senate was particularly angry that the House of Representatives breached the agreements reached by the two chambers in respect of the early passage of the 2009 budget in December 2008.

The Senate was also said to have been angered by undue activism of the House of Representatives on the procedure to be adopted for the planned review of the 1999 Constitution.

Members of the House of Representatives walked out of a retreat in Minna, Niger State, on January 16, follo-wing disagreements on the leadership of the Joint Committee on Constitution Review (JCCR).

Members of the House had insisted that the Deputy Speaker, Honourable Bayero Nafada, be designated as co-chairman of the JCCR instead of vice chairman that had been the convention in the National Assembly since 1999.

A source said Mark, who is the chairman of the National Assembly, was not impressed by the manner in which the leadership of the House painted the Senate as having failed to do a thorough work on the 2009 budget in December 2008, after the upper chamber had fulfilled the agreement to give the budget accelerated passage.

According to sources, the plan was to ensure that the budget was ready by January 1, 2009, so that the presidency would have no excuse on its implementation.

“We agreed to pass the budget early enough and before the end of the year so that Nigerians could start having dividends of democracy early in the year, but after passing it at the Senate, the House reneged on the agreement and started painting the Senate as if we didn’t do a thorough job on the budget.

“At the end of it all, the delay they caused to the budget did not yield any significant change,” a source said.

It was gathered, however, that the Senate President also proposed some amendments to the sitting arrangement in the chamber.

He was said to have declared that since the constitution guaranteed him the power to preside over joint sessions, he would be the only one seated on the presiding table if the session would hold.

Sources at the closed session held by the Senate on Thursday also confirmed to the Nigerian Tribune that the Senate President complained to his collea-gues that Bankole refused to pick his phones in his attempts to resolve the logjam between the Senate and the House.

In spite of watertight security arrangement put in place at the National Assembly complex on Thursday, President Umaru Yar’Adua, who was expected to present the 2010 budget proposals, failed to make an appearance, leading to indefinite postponement of the exercise.

The presidency and the National Assembly management, led by Mr. Yemi Ogunyomi, had made the security arrangements to guarantee the safety of President Yar’Adua, but unresolved rancour between the Senate and House of Representatives stalled the presentation.


Source:

http://www.tribune.com.ng/20112009/news/news3.html

What a tragedy

KnowAll:

The problem in Nigeria is each Assembly do not know their roles. The House of Reps which is a representation of all peoples of Nigeria based on population is the most powerful and speaks for the generality of the population.

The problem lies with the term upper / Lower Chambers. The Upper Chambers cannot reject bills passed in the lower House. It is just like Obama’s health reform bill; having passed through the lower House in a whisker cannot be rejected in its totality by the Senate. The Senate will look at the bill and add to or remove certain sections they are not happy with but to out-right reject the bill is a no-no.

They the Senate don’t have the mandate to do so in practise, though in theory they can but in practise they will not, they broker any deadlock sitiuation between the House of Reps and the Presidency,   the Senate is a representation of the federating units in an equal footing. For example in America a state like California has 53 members in the House of Reps but only have 5 senators, whilst a State like Maine has probably 3 House of Reps members and also have 5 senators. For Senators to start rejecting bills discriminatingly after such bills have passed through the House of Reps will mean the will of the general populace has being rejected by the perseverance of a few.

In the Context of Yardua presenting his Budet 2010, he should present it to the people and by the people it will mean the House of Reps. The Senate should not even be in the picture on this at all.

Thank you.

David Mark is behaving stupid and childish.

The problem is the senate chambers has a 250- sit capacity while their are 469 legislators and lets not add the members of the executives that will be coming with the president and invited guests.

I guess the senate will encourage legislators to lap each other

These fools who call themselves honorable members are the ones destroying this country all in the name of democracy, no wonder why we've have countless coups in this country.
All they know is to embezzle our money, set up probe committees that will finally mellow down after being settled.
The House of Assembly members said that the FG performed poorly in the implementation of 2009 Budget, I guess we should all know the reason why it is so! It is the unnecessary bickering between the Upper and Lower Chamber that was responsible for the poor implementation.
Now for 2010, Y'ardua wants to present his Budget on time so that come 2010, he will be able to implement the budget. But the House of Assembly members has other plans. Sometimes I wonder who they represent, Nigerians or their ego, I think it is the latter.
May God help our country called Nigeria!