Senate threatens to pass a decision against Buhari over 2016 budget

The National Assembly leadership was last night set to meet President Muhammadu Buhari to stave off a constitutional logjam over the 2016 budget that has seen senators threatening to override  the budget bill. The threat of veto override could be triggered from next Tuesday upon the lapse of the 30-day constitutional window given the President to sign the bill tomorrow.


President Muhammadu Buhari and Senate President Bukola Saraki
President Muhammadu Buhari and Senate President Bukola Saraki
The vow in a closed-door session of the Senate came as senators across party ranks rose in uproar against the alleged actions of the chairman of the Senate Committee on Appropriation, Senator Danjuma Goje in mutilating the inputs of the Senate committees on the budget. Sources said that several senators demanded Goje’s resignation from the position.

Meanwhile, the Senate has dismissed the public outrage against its purchase of 36 exotic vehicles supposedly for committee work at the cost of N35.1 million each, saying that senators were of higher dignity than ministers and other officials of the executive who it claimed drive superior vehicles.

The vow by the senators to override the President’s apparent veto on the 2016 appropriation bill, they claimed, was in line with constitutional provisions requiring the President to sign the budget bill within 30 days of receiving it or have his veto overridden.

The prospect of the National Assembly overriding the veto was, however, a matter of contention yesterday.

Vanguard gathered that the closed-door meeting which lasted for one hour, thirty minutes, presided over by Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu was characterized by uproar as senators shouted on one another following some irreconcilable differences.

A source at the meeting disclosed that there was a very sharp disagreement between members of the Appropriations Committee who complained that the committee chairman, Senator Goje, APC, Gombe Central, hijacked the entire budget process and outsourced it to his counterpart in the House of Representatives, Abdulmumin Jibrin.

According to the source, some angry Senators were said to have accused the President of the Senate, Senator Bukola Saraki of appointing Goje as chairman of Appropriation simply because he was a loyalist of his and a number of other senators also called for his removal from the position.

“We have decided to go and beg President Muhammadu Buhari to sign the budget into law and after which every other correction and amendment will be done,” a source present at the session said.

“We have resolved that time is ticking and if he fails to sign it within the stipulated thirty days in line with the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria it will be assumed that the President has withheld his assent and the National Assembly will have no other option than to override him, thereby furthering the conflict between the Executive and the Legislature.”

The 2016 Appropriation Bill was forwarded to the President on March 23, 2016.

Following the closed-door session, Senator Ekweremadu summed up the proceedings thus: “The Senate in a closed session deliberated on issues relating to the 2016 Appropriation Bill and the way forward for the quick resolution of all the matters related to the early implementation of the budget in the best interest of our nation.”

Vanguard learnt last night that the National Assembly delegation is expected to counsel the President on what is constitutionally expected of him in the face of the crisis. The leadership, it was gathered, would ask the President to sign the budget as passed and send an amendment bill immediately to address the issues of concern to the Presidency.

Yesterday, Chief Emeka Ngige, SAN proffered his counsel on the issue. Speaking with Vanguard in a telephone interview, he said:

“The budget issue summarily calls for give and take. It calls for collaboration between the National Assembly and the executive"

Source: Vanguard