Budget Crisis: Senate lambast Presidency, Amaechi, says enough is enough
– Senate has told the Presidency to stop setting the people against them over the 2016 budget
-Senate said the Lagos-Calabar railway was not included in the original budget sent to the assembly
-Senate said the latest antics of the minister of transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, is reckless, uncalled for and dangerously divisive
– The highest law making body in the country therefore urge President Buhari to sign the 2016 budget without any further delay
Floor of the Nigerian senate
Nigerian senate has advised the Presidency to come clean with Nigerians on the 2016 Budget and stop engaging in surreptitious campaigns of calumny against the Senate in order to cover up its serial errors.
Reacting to claims in the media credited to the Executive arm of government on the 2016 budget, Senator Aliyu Sabi Abdullahi, chairman, Senate committee on media and public affairs, in a statement in Abuja, said the National Assembly had bent backwards to wring a coherent document out of the excessively flawed and chaotic versions of the budget proposal submitted to the National Assembly.
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He said : “while the executive is mandated to prepare and lay before the National Assembly a proposed budget detailing projects to be executed, it should be made clear that the responsibility and power of appropriation lies with the National Assembly. If the presidency expects us to return the budget proposal to them without any adjustments, then some people must be living in a different era and probably have not come to terms with democracy.”
“We make bold to say however, that the said Lagos-Calabar rail project was not included in the budget proposal presented to the National Assembly by President Muhammadu Buhari and we challenge anyone who has any evidence to the contrary to present such to Nigerians.”
The Senate said it has suffered all manners of falsehood, deliberate distortion of facts, and outright blackmail, deliberately aimed at poisoning the minds of the people against the institution of the National Assembly.
Senate revealed that there was an original version of the budget which was surreptitiously swapped and “we ended up having two versions of the budget, which was almost incomprehensible and heavily padded in a manner that betrays lack of coordination and gross incompetence, we refused to play to the gallery and instead helped the Executive to manage the hugely embarrassing situation it has brought upon itself; but enough is enough.”
The red chamber said the latest antics of the minister of transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, is reckless, uncalled for and dangerously divisive.
“This manner of reprehensible Mischief has no place in a democracy. We hereby demand from Mr. Amaechi a publicly tendered apology if he is not able to show evidence that the Lagos-Calabar road project was included in the budget. Otherwise, he should resign forthwith.”
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The highest law making body in the country therefore urge President Buhari to sign the 2016 budget without any further delay.
“For every additional day that the president withholds his assent from the bill, the hardship in the land, which is already becoming intolerable for the masses of our people gets even more complicated. Certainly, as primary representatives of the people we shall not vacate our responsibility and watch the people continue to suffer unduly.”
Recall that the chairman Senate committee on land transport, Senator Gbenga Ashafa has cleared the air on the controversial Lagos-Calabar rail project from the 2016 budget.
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