President Muhammadu Buhari will
present the 2018 Appropriation Bill to a joint session of the National Assembly
today (Tuesday).
The 2018 budget proposal
presentation is scheduled to hold at 2pm.
The Federal Government plans to
spend about N8.6tn next year, a jump of about 15 per cent from the N7.44tn
budgeted for the current year.
The figures were contained in the
2018-2020 Medium Term Expenditure Framework and Fiscal Strategy Paper, which
Buhari had earlier sent to the National Assembly in compliance with the
provisions of the Fiscal Responsibility Act, 2007.
It was however, gathered that
leaders of both the Senate and the House of Representatives were making last
minute efforts to prevent drama during the presentation.
A source in the Senate, who spoke
on condition of anonymity, disclosed on Monday that both the President of the
Senate, Bukola Saraki; and Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu
Dogara, held series of meetings with members of both chambers to douse the
brewing tension since Buhari’s letter informing the lawmakers of the
presentation last week.
The source informed one of our
correspondents that some members of the House of Representatives specifically
had made moves to prevent Buhari from laying the budget proposal today, while
calling for postponement of the presentation.
Leaders of both chambers were
said to have begun a massive lobbying of the lawmakers, especially the
aggrieved ones, and held meetings with them simultaneously on Monday.
The source said, “The President
will present the budget on Tuesday (today) but there is an issue. Some members
of the National Assembly, particularly in the House of Representatives, are
against the presentation of a new budget proposal when the current one has not
been implemented considerably.
“If you recall, there were
protests in the House of Representatives when the President’s letter was read
last week. The issue now is how to contain the aggrieved lawmakers so that they
will not raise their grievances as Buhari presents the budget. Their grouse may
be legitimate but we don’t want a situation where the session will record
unpalatable drama or become rowdy.
“This is the reason why there
have been series of meetings with caucuses in the chambers, including the one
by the leaders, which will hold tonight (Monday). Again, it is most likely that
there will be a closed-door session at the beginning of the plenary tomorrow;
this is another way of preventing a crisis.”
Members of the House of
Representatives had on Thursday protested as Buhari requested their permission
in a letter to present the estimates of the 2018 budget to the joint session of
the National Assembly.
Dogara, however, reminded his
colleagues that under the Constitution, they could not refuse to receive the
appropriation bill from the President.
Meanwhile, businesses in and
around the National Assembly Complex are set to be negatively affected by Buhari’s
presence on the premises. It was reliably gathered that a circular was sent to
private offices in the building to close shop for the day.
A worker in one of the commercial
banks in the building confirmed to one of our correspondents that there would
be no banking services today (Tuesday).
A food vendor expressed doubts on
whether to open for business as most of her customers would be shut out of the
premises.
The National Assembly began
beefing up security on Monday ahead of the President’s visit.
As part of the security measures,
the management of the National Assembly advised all members of staff, who had
no scheduled assignment relating to the budget presentation, to stay away from
the premises.
The Director of Information and
Publications, National Assembly, Mr. Dibal Ishaku confirmed that a
circular had already been sent out to that effect.
“There is a circular that was
issued. It’s even on our notice boards and the content is self-explanatory,” he
stated.
The Police and Department of
State Services operatives were also seen making security arrangements on Monday
at the premises.
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