ABUJA – For the second day running in the National Assembly, appropriation committees of the Senate and Reps failed yesterday to lay 2016 budget report as they had earlier promised.
The Committees had at joint briefing two weeks ago, assured Nigerians that the report would be laid at the table of both chambers on Wednesday, March 16, 2016 for passage on Thursday 17th March 2016, which however have not taken place in anyway.
Even additional promise made by the committees, after the Wednesday failure that the budget report would be laid yesterday (Thursday) for possible passage next week Tuesday, was not also met.
A pointer to the disappointment was very apparent yesterday morning with non listing of the Budget report on the order paper which usually serve as the agenda for the day’s legislative business.
In their joint press briefings Spokespersons for the Senate and the House of Representatives, Sen. Sabi Abdullahi, and Rep. Abdulrazaq Namdas respectively chorused that the document was not ready for submission because the committee members were yet engaged in “data clearing”.
Abdullahi and his colleague however assured Nigerians that the budget would be laid and passed on Tuesday next weekbecause the National Assembly would not pass a budget that would be full of errors.
Abdullahi said, “As far as we are concerned, we have not failed. What is happening is the seriousness with which we take the 2016 appropriation. It’s such that we cannot also afford to make errors that will become very costly to this nation.
” We have finished all necessary work within the context of the various committees. But remember when you do the paper work, you have to also get people who will sit down and check what we call data cleansing and integration.
“The two appropriation committees (of both chambers) must integrate. That is the essence of what you call harmonisation. This is something very technical and tedious and if you recall, this is a very voluminous document.
“You will recall that we promised we promised Nigerians that by today 17th March, we will be able to pass the 2016 appropriation. Yesterday, (Wednesday ) I also confirmed to you that today, that same appropriation bill will be laid, bearing any last minute technical hitches or otherwise.
” We are here to let you know that as of today, we are unable to lay the 2016 appropriation bill and thus we are hoping next week that process will be completed. When I briefed you, I recalled you were asking if the passage will be completed by next week. And we said ‘Yes’.
“When you lay the budget the next thing is for you to discuss the budget and get it passed. The two activities will be carried out next week God’s willing. And let me pre-empt you because I know you will be saying perhaps we have failed to keep to our promise.
“So, in our own understanding, we don’t want to rush just because we want to keep to a promise that today that budget must be passed. What we owe to Nigerians is a budget that is implementable; a budget that will kick-start the reflection of our national economy.
” It’s a budget that will help to create jobs and therefore stimulate our economic rebirth. So, that is what we have seen as a key objective and I want to assure you that for those of you who know statistics, in everything you do, you must give freedom for degree of error.
“Plus or minus, if by next week, we will are able to take this, then within that margin of error, the National Assembly is still on course.”
On whether the budget was not laid because of the errors discovered in the document, Abdullahi said, “I never alluded to the fact that there was such errors that you are referring to.”
He said, ” What we said is data integration and consolidation, which means at the end of the day, the appropriation bill has to come in the same form to be laid in the two chambers. The House of Representatives worked as an independent chamber, the Senate worked as an independent chamber.
“We came back again at that level of the Appropriation Committee to harmonise. What we have tried to do is to be working together all along. But at the last end of the work, that harmonisation must be done very thoroughly.
” So, this is not a simple job because you are having certain things that they believe should be done, we are having certain things here that should be done and we must meet and agree on one position.
“That is the essence of this exercise. Having done that on paper, those who will go on to the computer and do the punching, we must give them time. That is where the errors can come in. And we don’t want to come back here and start telling you that there’s a printer’s Devil.
” Let me also reiterate that for as official spokesmen of the two chambers, we are not here to corroborate rumours, neither are we here to lend credence to rumours. Those who have their facts know where they got their facts. And I think it is in their own right that you go to them to make explanations.
“Based on all the work that has been done, I don’t think I have an official copy (of the budget) because that work is still to be completed. So, you wait. When we lay our budget that document that is laid, when you have any issue with it you relate to us and then we shall answer the questions.”
