ABUJA – Opposition to presentation of the 2018 budget proposal before the joint session of the National Assembly today by President Muhammadu Buhari intensified yesterday among the federal lawmakers patticularly those in the House of Representatives .
The development has made the leadership of both chambers to meet with considerable numbers of their colleagues to elicit their support for the presentatoon.
Like a gathering storm, the opposition to the presentation of the budget which arose from the poor implementation of the 2017 budget gathered momentum after last werk indication by the President to present the budget proposal for 2018 at the joint session.
The open rejection of the request in the House of Representatives last week Thursday when Speaker Yakubu Dogara presented it to members was a clear indication that all is not well.
The aggrieved lawmakers who do not want to be mentioned anchored their protest against the Budget Presentation on what a lawmaker described as the attempt by the executive arm of government to sabotage their political fortunes in their constituencies.
He said: “How else can one’s politcal career be frustrated? Since 2015, we have never had a single budget that recorded 50% success in terms of impelmentation particularly with regards to capital projects. We had hoped that all these would be corrected in the 2017 budget but no! It is even was.
” When we asked questions, no concrete response is forthcoming; and you expect us to just keep quiet and allow the President to present another budget that may go the same way.
“Remember that the 2018 budget is the last one to be excuted fully by this administration. What will the President count aa his legacy in terms of budget implementation? Also take note that all these budget failures has very damning effects on members of the National Assembly who are the real representatives of the people. What do they expect us to tell our constituents? It is really a sad moment for us”
Apparently to prevent what might turn out to be a very embarrassing scenario today, the leadership of the National Assembly has been holding secret meetings with lawmakers at different levels.
In the Senate, the leadership met yesterday with the two party caucuses during which it got assurances that the budget presentation would not be disturbed.
It was also gathered that the Senate leadership specifically tasked some Senators to move to the House of Representatives to assist the House leadership in persuading lawmakers to accept to host the President at the budget event.
The understanding of House of Representatives’ members is particularly important because the budget presentation session holds in that chamber.
Meanwhile, the new Secratary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha, met briefly with the Senate and House of Representatives leadership yesterday for reasons not completely unconnected to the budget presentation palaver.
For over 45 minutes, the SGF met behind closed doors with Saraki and other Principal Officers during which he was reassured that the Senate was not leaving any stone unturned to have a hitch-free budget presentation.
Aside yesterday’s peace meetings, a meeting of the body of Principal Officers of the National Assembly haa been scheduled to hold this morning in the National Assembly to review the success or otherwise of the peace efforts so far made.
It was learnt that the meeting will be followed by executive session in each chamber during which the decision to completely drop all agitation against the President over poor budget implementation would be taken.
