President Muhammadu Buhari has informed the National Assembly that there are no two versions of the 2016 Budget, and that the version he presented to its joint sitting on Tuesday, December 22, 2015, remains the authentic document.
He also affirmed that there is no plan to withdraw or substitute the Appropriation Bill as being insinuated.
The President made these declarations in separate letters he wrote to the leadership of both chambers of the National Assembly on Monday.
In the letter dated Friday, January 15, 2016, Buhari also explained that at the time he submitted the draft Bill, accompanied by a Schedule of details, the National Assembly was duly informed that the budget details had just been produced then and that the Executive would have to cross-check it to ensure that there are no errors in the detailed breakdown in the Schedule.
According to him, the verification had been completed and the corrections had been subsequently submitted to the National Assembly, a development, he said, gave rise to the suspicion of the existence of different versions of the budget and the attendant confusion.
The President’s four-paragraph letter, whose content is to be revealed to lawmakers Tuesday in both the Senate and House of Representatives’ plenaries, is attached with the corrected version of the budget details, hence the National Assembly is expected to immediately begin work on the 2016 Appropriation Bill.
The presidential communication reads in part: “The National Assembly would therefore have the details as submitted on the 22nd and a copy containing the corrections submitted last week. It appears that this has led to some confusion.
“In this regard, please find attached the corrected version. This is the version the National Assembly should work with as my 2016 Budget estimates. The draft Bill remains the same and there are no changes in any of the figures.”
This latest revelation by the President may have helped to dispel claims by the Senate President Bukola Saraki, that the Senior Special Assistant to the President on NASS Matters (Senate), Senator Ita Enang, had attempted to smuggle a different version of the budget into the National Assembly other than the one presented by the President.
Senate’ll conclude, pass 2016 Budget by February
The Senate said Monday that it would ensure that consideration of the 2016 budget presented to the joint session of the National Assembly by President Muhammadu Buhari in December, last year would be concluded and passed before the end of next month.
Senate leader, Senator Ali Ndume, who made the position known, said senators had planned to pass the budget in record time, but blamed the delay on recent misgivings about the alleged missing budget, even as he described the budget as failing integrity test.
“We are targeting end of February to round off everything about the 2016 national budget. If not for the talk about the missing budget, we would have gone far. But we are still determined to pass the budget on time and that will be before the end of February,” he said.
Briefing Senate correspondents at the National Assembly Complex, Ndume also hinted that the Senate will Tuesday quiz the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele, over the persistent free fall of naira against major international currencies.
He also dismissed the call by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for the impeachment of President Muhammadu Buhari by the Senate as a big joke.
On the CBN governor, Ndume explained that the Senate’s decision to invite Emefiele for questioning became necessary because the lawmakers needed to be properly briefed on the next line of action.
He said, “The CBN governor is coming (Tuesday). I raised a point of order because there is the need for the National Assembly to ask questions about the skyrocketing price of dollar in the black market. The difference between the official exchange rate and that of the black market is too high. We need to ask questions so that we can report back to the common man. It has never been this bad.
“This is my personal opinion. The Bureau De Change (BDC) is now a big employment avenue. If you shut it down, there will be a problem. At the same time, you should not open the windows for people to abuse the process,” he said.
The Senate Leader, who also maintained his earlier stance that the 2016 budget was not missing, said the Senate Committee on Ethics, Privileges and Public Petitions was only mandated to carry out an integrity test on the two copies of the budget before the Red Chamber.
He said: “Not only that the budget was not missing; the budget cannot be missing. The budget comes in copies. The copy submitted by Mr. President cannot be missing. There are some issues that came later surrounding the budget.
“We told the Senate Committee on Ethics, Privileges and Public Petitions to find out what happened and they discovered that there were two versions. What the president submitted as a bill is still there. Nothing has changed.”
On the call by the PDP for the National Assembly to commence an impeachment process against President Buhari following his alleged involvement in the budget crisis, Ndume described it as a huge joke and insisted that Buhari remained the President the country needs at the moment.
He said, “The PDP calling for the impeachment of Buhari is a big joke. Did we kill the PDP for what they did to us in the last 16 years? The call for the impeachment of the President by the PDP is what they are supposed to do. They are in the opposition.
“Buhari is the kind of leader the country wants. His emergence is divine intervention. We were in the opposition and I understand. The game the PDP is playing is understandable. The budget is not missing.”
We’ve made significant progress in ending Boko Haram insurgency — Buhari
President Muhammadu Buhari said Monday in Abu Dhabi that Nigeria has made very significant progress towards ending the Boko Haram insurgency since his assumption of office on May 29, last year.
In a statement by his Special Adviser on Media Femi Adesina, Buhari told UN Secretary-general Ban Ki Moon on the sidelines of the World Future Energy Summit that the Nigerian Armed Forces, in collaboration with the Multinational Joint Task Force, have driven the terrorist group from Nigerian territory into “fall-back positions.”
“They are currently not holding any territory today as we speak,” the President told Ban Ki Moon.
President Buhari also told the UN scribe that Nigeria would persistently pursue global actions to reverse the drying up of Lake Chad and save the lives of those who depend on it for survival.
“With all due respect to our neighbours, Nigeria has been the worst hit by the drying up of Lake Chad and we are hoping that the global community will support the process of halting the drying up of the lake,” President Buhari said.
Ban Ki Moon commends Buhari on anti-corruption war
Meanwhile, Mr Ban Ki Moon has commended the President for his courage in fighting terrorism and corruption.
He said Nigeria has made amazing progress against terrorism since President Buhari assumed office, while the President’s war against corruption has boosted global confidence in the Nigerian economy.
He urged President Buhari to integrate the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals into Nigeria’s economic and environmental vision.
Oil price fall: FG must diversify Nigeria’s economy – Gov Dickson
As the price of oil in the international market continues to dwindle, the Governor of Bayelsa State Seriake Dickson, has called on the Federal Government to diversify the nation’s economy, stating that global oil prices are in for more tumble after Iran said it was ready to add half a million barrels a day to crude exports after international sanctions were lifted.
Speaking during an interactive session with newsmen in Abuja Monday, Dickson said with Iran producing such volume and getting more fully involved in the oil trade again, there will be more glut in the oil market with the attendant reduction in the international price of crude oil which will directly have an impact on all Nigerians.
Highlighting the implications of the global market conditions and the surplus that exists with Iran’s readiness to raise its crude oil exports by 500,000 barrels a day, he said, ‘’The federal and state governments might not be able to pay salaries again, including salaries of soldiers, law enforcement agents, the judiciary and other critical workers needed in the country, and you all know a hungry man is an angry man.’’
On his recent electoral victory, he described it as a triumph of peoples will over might, adding that the election showed that Nigeria’s democracy is on track.
He, however, expressed surprise that the Federal Government and his opponent in the last gubernatorial election, Timipre Sylva, were yet to congratulate him.
‘’I expect a congratulatory message from Sylva and the APC-led Federal Government. We should be forming a national consensus to move Nigeria forward. This President took over the reins of authority in this country at a time that called for all hands to be on deck.
‘’I am surprised that in spite of all these challenges, people are more interested in battles, fight, instead of making friends and building a national consensus. But my view is (that) after election, you address problems of the country and state and move forward,’’ he stressed.
The governor alleged that while he and his team were strategizing on how to win the election, his contender was preparing for war.
He maintained that the election was basically a fight for the sustainability of the nation’s democracy.
On the state of the nation’s economy and insecurity, he said, ‘’I have always maintained that after elections, especially after the last presidential election, all governors, irrespective of the way we feel about the election, should work and support the President and the Federal Government in critical areas which include insecurity, repositioning the nation’s economy and maintenance of law and order.
‘’I have always known that these times will be very trying, because we have seen a steady decline in our revenue for the past one and half years. I am surprised that APC which was in opposition then did not see that coming. So I have made this call over and over.
‘’What I have seen is an insufficient attention by the Federal team, which is the team around the President: They seem to have taken their eyes off the nation’s economy and security; they seem to be focusing more on political conquest and expansion of the authority of their party instead of focusing on the nation’s economy and national security challenges,’’ he noted.
He expressed the view that the President did not have honest advisers adding that the presidential team was not expansive and broad enough.
“I see a lot of unnecessary restrictions and concern about political ego,’’ he said, adding that the President took over the reins of authority in this country at a time that called for national consensus.
‘’All hands must be on deck. We should be forming a national consensus; take, for example, more people have died in the hands of Boko Haram insurgents between when President Muhammadu Buhari took over till date than a relative period in the last administration.’’
He said contrary to the government’s public proclamation, the Boko Haram threat remains a serious challenge, even as he affirmed that the country’s gallant military was doing its best and urged Nigerians to support it.
He said: ‘’The national security team need to have their eyes on the national security, and when you tie that with the possibility of the consequences of the dwindling revenue in 2016 and the years ahead, the President’s team should not be spending on political conquest as they are doing, deploying national assets and resources in areas that are not necessary. What is necessary is that consensus is achieved on the economy.’’
-Leadership
