The federal government has
reacted to Senate President Bukola Saraki’s description of the 2019 budget as
‘hopeless’, saying the executive will not exchange words with the legislature.
This position was stated by
Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, while speaking with State
House correspondents Friday afternoon.
He also said the executive has
fulfilled its responsibility by submitting the budget.
Mr Mohammed was reacting to a
comment by Mr Saraki who recently described the budget proposal as ‘hopeless’.
“Yesterday (Wednesday), we all
heard the 2019 budget. That is a budget that has no hope for anybody because if
you look at the statistics and the figures there’s poverty, if you look at the
figures based on revenues that are coming in, there is nothing left. So where’s
the future?
“There must be an alternative and
that is what we hope that by this evening speaking to our candidate and vice
presidential candidate, not based on sentiments. We are not voting on
sentiments, we are voting on what is the need for you. How is your life going
to be better? Which party offers you a better future because we see you as
those who are patriotic and committed. It’s not about what you’ll get today.
It’s about the great country a lot of you expect to see,” Vanguard quoted Mr
Saraki as saying.
The newspaper said Mr Saraki made
the comment in his capacity as the director of Atiku Abubakar campaign
organisation.
Mr Saraki recently defected from
the ruling All Progressives Congress to the main opposition Peoples Democratic
Party. His bid to clinch the party’s presidential ticket was unsuccessful.
In his Friday reaction, Mr
Mohammed the budget was presented “given some circumstances”.
“It is not the practice of the
executive to be exchanging words with the legislative arm of government, they
are independent, we are independent,” he said. “To the best of our knowledge,
we presented a budget given the circumstances of our resources this year, we
feel that is the best we can. It is left for the National Assembly to consider
it,” Mr Mohammed added.
The minister said the Buhari
government “has met all promises and obligations to Nigerians”.
“I wish everybody Merry Christmas
and as a government, we are happy that we have been able to meet all our
promises, all our obligations to Nigerians,” he said. “And as the year rolls
out, we are more determined to even to deliver more to Nigerians.”
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