The fate of this year’s budget was yesterday hanging in the balance, with Senate President Bukola Saraki accusing Presidential Liasson Officer Ita Enang of printing a different version of the document presented by PresidentMuhammadu Buhari on December 22.He said the Senate will not consider the budget until the version presented by the President is made available to senators.But to the President, the drama over the document is “laughable”, according to House Presidential Liasson Officer Sumaila Kawu.Saraki spoke after a two-hour closed session to “thorougly discuss and to takefar-reaching discussion on the budget”.He recalled that the Senate Committee on Ethics, Privileges and Public Petitions was told to investigate the matter.He said the Senate discovered from the findings of its Ethics committee that Enang printed and submitted to the Senate a different version of the document.He said: “We have received the report ofthe Committee on Ethics, Privileges andPublic Petitions on investigations surrounding 2016 Appropriation Bill.“Our finding is that Senator Ita Enang, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on National Assembly Matters (SSA), printed copies of the 2016 Appropriation Bill and brought to the Senate.“We have discovered that what he brought is different from the version presented by Mr. President.“We have resolved to consider only the version presented by Mr. President as soon as we receive soft copy of the original document from the Executive.”Chairman, Senate Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Senator Aliyu Sabi Abdullahi, told reporters immediately after Senate plenary that:“The report of the investigation by the committee on Ethics, Privileges and Public Petition has been submitted in the Executive session because it was a decision we took in the last Executive session on Tuesday.“Now our findings are these, that Mr. President did lay the budget in the Joint session of the National Assembly.“Thereafter, the Senate went on recess and upon resumption copies of the document were produced by Senator ItaEnang, who is the Senior Special Assistant to the President on National Assembly Matters for Senate and copies were submitted to both the Senate and the House of Representatives.“What we found out is that the document submitted by Senator Ita Enang upon our resumption has some differences and discrepancies with what was originally laid by Mr. President in the joint sitting of the National Assembly.“However, the Senate in defence of its integrity and honour will not work with what has not been laid in the National Assembly.“We are constitutionally mandated and duty-bound to consider only that budget that has been so laid by Mr. President.“Right now, for reproduction, we are awaiting the soft copy of the originally submitted budget so that the National Assembly can reproduce copies of the budget itself.“Because if we reproduce ourselves, then we have confidence in the fact that what we reproduced is what was originally submitted to us.“The institution of the Senate will not and can not do anything that is illegal. We will not do any thing that will not promote the unity, integrity and welfareof Nigerians.”Abdullahi said: “The budget submitted by the President is not missing. We already have copies of it but what we are saying is that for us to reproduce forour members, it is easier, based on the quantum of document that has to be produced, that we get the soft copy of that original version so that we can reproduce it.”He insisted that “by next week, we wantto go down to business; senators have picked dates to speak during the three days set aside for debate of the 2016 budget.”Abdullahi also said that the Senate leadership was mandated to speak with all those concerned with the document. “That was why the Senate President was in touch with Mr. President.”The Senate spokesperson, however, refused to speak on the claim by the House of Representatives that it had itsown original version of the fiscal document.

He also declined to state the differencesin the version submitted by Enang and the one presented by President Buhari.“I am not in the position to say the differences between the document submitted by the President and the one brought by Ita Enang. The committee that investigated the issue did not include that in their report.”Enang declined to speak on the matter, saying it is between “two of my bosses”..”I do not want to comment on the matter at the moment,” Enang said. “It is a very sensitive matter involving two of my bosses – the National Assembly and Presidency. I don’t want to talk about them.”To Buhari, the drama over the budget is “laughable”, according to the House Presidential Liasson Officer Sumaiala Kawu. The President cannot direct his agents to “steal” the document.According to him, the President has no reason to smuggle the document out of the Senate because he is aware of options he can explore to withdraw the document.He also described the accusation directed at his Senate counterpart, Sen.Ita Enang as “unfair” because the formersenator is an experienced lawmaker who once chaired Rules and Business Committees in the House and in the Senate.Kawu said the missing budget rumour may have been strengthened by the locking away of the document in the Clerk of the National Assembly’s office.He said: “It is a suprise to us and Mr President in particular; it is laughable. We just laughed when we heard of it.“Being a joint sitting , Mr President laid one document on the floor; then it is for the Budget Office or National Planning Commission (NPC) to make copies.“In this case, once it was laid, the Clerk of the National Assembly locked the document in his office because of the time of the year; it was holiday period and the lawmakers were going on holiday.“The confusion might have been as a result of that.“But our concern in this matter is why we were dragged into it.“Actually, as our job entails, we lobbied the National Assembly to take a second look at the oil benchmark because our projection was no longer in tune with the current reality.

“We lobbied the National Assembly on the benchmark; it was not illegal or alien to legislature world over and it hasnothing to do with stealing or smuggling it out of the Senate.“We, as the Executive, have to take account of the volatile nature of oil price. The National Assembly was aware of this, but notwithstanding we still have no reason to withdraw it.“Even if the document must be withdrawn, it must be done legally and there are laid down means of doing that,which the President can explore.“Buhari will be the last person to assign his agent to be involved in such illegality.”The presidential aide said the sad development was not a matter of lack ofcommunication between the Executive and legislature but an act of mischief by those behind it.He defended Enang, saying:“Enang is a hands-on legislator that knows the rules. He was Chairman of Rules and Business committees of the House and Senate, so he knows the rules.“This is the same lawmaker that tackled the then Minister of Finance, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, on different versions of Budget being implemented.“He is very much aware of what is at stake and couldn’t have involved himself in such an illegality”.On whether the budget may be withdrawn as a result of the crashing global oil price, Kawu said there was no plan for that.“We will not withdraw the because the Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) has taken into consideration asituation like this.“We are aware that for Saudi Arabia to raise her domestic oil price and the United States exporting oil means there’s a problem.“That was the reason why diversification of economy is a priority to this government, this budget wasn’t oil-dependent,” he said.House of Representatives spokesman Abdulrazak Namdas said the House would only work with the document presented by President Buhari.“He came with the document, and laid it on the table, and this is the document we would work on, as far as we are concerned as a House.“By next week, we are commencing consideration of the document. Since our budget is not missing, nobody has withdrawn it,”.

http://thenationonlineng.net/buhari-senates-claim-on-budget-2016-is-laughable/

Muhamadu What's so funny that ur laughing enh? are there changes in d budget or not

Lalasticala and mynd44 good morning.

Apc And Deceit


They Said GEJ Should Go, Shabi They've Seen The Change They're Craving For Right


Smh!!! For Nigeria

1shortblackboy:
Muhamadu What's so funny that ur laghing enh?

Bros you sure say you read everything?

Osirimononaye:
Apc And Deceit


They Said GEJ Should Go, Shabi They've Seen The Change They're Craving For Right


Smh!!! For Nigeria

Please read, in case you too dull to understand ask for for interpretation. Thank you

do we always follow budgets in ds country monetary disbursement? must a different scenario trend every week?

Kyase:

Please read, in case you too dull to understand ask for for interpretation. Thank you

Will That Change The Fact That APC Is Supernaturally Corrupt??


See What Is Happening Nw Is.

Supernatural Corrupt Gang VS Corrupt Gang----- The Most Corrupt Wins The Match, Use Wisdom And U'll Understand What Am Saying.

Your headlessness is even more laughable.

Saraki,saraki.....
1. u released a fake budget proposal to the public to embarrass the President.
2. your case at the CCB comes up soon n u think you can use this delay tactic to bargain your stay as Senate President? we shall see.

Osirimononaye:

Will That Change The Fact That APC Is Supernaturally Corrupt??


See What Is Happening Nw Is.

Supernatural Corrupt Gang VS Corrupt Gang----- The Most Corrupt Wins The Match, Use Wisdom And U'll Understand What Am Saying.

The wisdom of a man in grieve that's what I'm seeing.

Babacele:
Saraki,saraki.....
1. u released a fake budget proposal to the public to embarrass the President.
2. your case at the CCB comes up soon n u think you can use this delay tactic to bargain your stay as Senate President? we shall see.

Him never see anything yet.

Whether it is laughable or not, I really don't care- all I want is that the budget, or its amended form, be tailored in such a manner that the common man benefits the most.

Be that as it may, personally, I get suspicious when the government comes out to issue "denials" on matters of this nature.

Baba should be very careful the calibre of people he surrounds himself with. They are his greatest assets and would to a very large extent determine the success or otherwise of his administration.

I wish him well.

ok na

Kyase:

Him never see anything yet.

He go smell pepper. at least we know now without doubt that he has declared a war!

We should commend d president 4 listening to us on nairaland and Nigeria masses in general for reducing aso rock feeding from 500million naira in d first version to 100Million naira in the new version.

This is better than in d past were president defend 1billion naira for Aso rock feeding

We should commend d president for reducing Car in presidency from 3.4billion in d first version to 340million in the new one. That is 90% drop.

I agree he was not well advised on how to go about it, but it was done with d interest of d masses. But we should focus on end point of the action and not on frivolities PDP are feeding d masses with.

We should understand that Buhari was not under any compulsion to reduce some of those extravagance. He could have ignored d criticism of d masses and leave the waste in d budget. But he listen to us and amended it.

Why is it not an issue in the House of Representative? The Budget was not only given to Senate. The budget was presented to Joint National Assembly. Not to senate alone. House of rep has no issue with d amendment. But criminal Saraki in d senate is trying to over blow it to protect himself from code of conduct tribunal because the supreme court decision is close by on the 5th of February. He is wasting his time. If Saraki thinks he can connive with PDP to blackmail the president into killing the anti-corruption drive of the president, he is making a big mistake .

The Budget has not be signed into law. It has not be approve. So it can be changed or ammended. The president saw an error and chose to correct. He may have been advised wrongly on how to do it, but the overall intention is noble. Nigerians should learn to praise noble things rather than destroying it with useless technicalities and partisanship.


PDP should not be taken seriously because they dont care a bit about Nigeria masses.
They only care about protecting thier criminal members and looters.

Next time the president must ensure he prove read every document before making it public to avoid this kind of embarrassment in the future.

As far as i am concern, this whole noise on d budget is due to the fact that the President and Saraki are not in good terms. So senate President is making unneccessary noise about it.

There is no illegality in what d presidency did. No law was broken. He may have missed some protocol in doing it, no single law was broken.

As a member of Nigeria masses, I know when things is done for the interest of d masses. This case is clearly in d interest of d masses. I will rather focus on d nobility of the intention and action of the president, than focus on the technicality which is being overblown out of proportion in d senate by the senate president to protect himself from prosecution.

I have seen both version. They are almost 99% the same. The majoy difference is the reduction in Extravagance in the presidency in the new one.


THE BUDGET WAS SUBMITTED TO BOTH SENATE AND HOUSE OF REP. HOUSE OF REP SPEAKER SAID NOTHING IS MISSING WHY IS SENATE PRESIDENT MAKING ALL THE NOISE.

Kyase:

The wisdom of a man in grieve that's what I'm seeing.

ur just one of those APC supporters that caan never be object. I shall not call u a zombie though. Its just not nice

omenka:
Whether it is laughable or not, I really don't care- all I want is that the budget, or its amended form, be tailored in such a manner that the common man benefits the most.

Be that as it may, personally, I get suspicious when the government comes out to issue "denials" on matters of this nature.

Baba should be very careful the calibre of people he surrounds himself with. They are his greatest assets and would to a very large extent determine the success or otherwise of his administration.

I wish him well.

omenka I think there is sabotage from the senate.

1shortblackboy:
ur just one of those APC supporters that caan never be object. I shall not call u a zombie though. Its just not nice

Lol you just did wailer

Babacele:
He go smell pepper. at least we know now without doubt that he has declared a war!

I swear

Kyase:
The wisdom of a man in grieve that's what I'm seeing.

whatever u see!

And Buhari's actions and inactions are epically hilarious. Saraki don begin jab Oga Buhari back2back. issorai

Drama every passing day.

Kyase:

Lol you just did wailer

ur not a nice person o upon say I retrain myself from calling u a zombie u still go call me wailer. God dey wtach u sha

sapiosexual1:
And Buhari's actions and inactions are epically hilarious. Saraki don begin jab Oga Buhari back2back. issorai

Saraki is wasting his time

1shortblackboy:
ur not a nice person o upon say I retrain myself from calling u a zombie u still go call me wailer. God dey wtach u sha

No dey take style dey call me zombie.

I don't understand all this mischief from both sides.
How come the content of the budget change?
How come the senate knows something has changed when they don't have a copy. They are still asking for soft copy from the executives.
How come a hard copy has to be physically submitted to the NA in the year of the lord 2016 with all the body guards and entourages when their is provision for secured electronic submission?

Kyase:
Saraki is wasting his time

Time would tell.

sapiosexual1:

Time would tell.

Surely