Senate president, Bukola Saraki
In a statement signed by the Chairman Senate Committee on Media and
Public Affairs, Senator Aliyu Sabi Abdullahi, the Nigerian Senate on
Monday, demanded a publicly-tendered apology from the Minister of
Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, challenging him to show evidence that
the Lagos-Calabar road project was included in the 2016 budget proposal
sent to the National Assembly, "otherwise, [Amaechi] should resign forthwith."
The upper chamber called on the Presidency to come clean with Nigerians on the budget and avoid 'surreptitious campaigns of calumny against the Senate to cover up its serial errors,' saying that the legislature has bent over backwards to wring a coherent document out of the 'excessively flawed and chaotic versions' of the budget proposal submitted to it.
Below is the statement;
“While the executive is mandated to prepare and lay before the
national assembly a proposed budget detailing projects to be executed,
it should be made clear that the responsibility and power of
appropriation lies with the national assembly,” he said in a statement.
“If the presidency expects us to return the budget proposal to
them without any adjustments, then some people must be living in a
different era and probably have not come to terms with democracy.
“We make bold to say, however, that the said Lagos-Calabar rail
project was not included in the budget proposal presented to the
national assembly by President Muhammadu Buhari and we challenge anyone
who has any evidence to the contrary to present such to Nigerians.
“Since the beginning of the 2016 budget process, it is clear
that the national assembly has suffered all manners of falsehood,
deliberate distortion of facts, and outright blackmail, deliberately
aimed at poisoning the minds of the people against the institution of
the national assembly.
“We have endured this with equanimity in the overall interest
of Nigerians. Even when the original submission was surreptitiously
swapped and we ended up having two versions of the budget, which was
almost incomprehensible and heavily padded in a manner that betrays lack
of coordination and gross incompetence, we refused to play to the
gallery and instead helped the executive to manage the hugely
embarrassing situation it has brought upon itself; but enough is enough.
“This latest antics of this particular minister of
transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, is reckless, uncalled for and
dangerously divisive. Apart from setting the people of the southern part
of the country against their northern compatriots, it potentially sets
the people against their lawmakers from the concerned constituencies and
sets the lawmakers against themselves.
“This manner of reprehensible mischief has no place in a
democracy. We hereby demand from Mr. Amaechi a publicly tendered apology
if he is not able to show evidence that the Lagos-Calabar road project
was included in the budget. Otherwise, he should resign forthwith.
“Finally, by the provision of Section 81 (4) (a) and (b) of the
constitution, the President is allowed to sign the budget and
kick-start the implementation of the other areas that constitute over 90
percent of the budget where there is agreement between both arms, even
as we engage ourselves to resolve the contentious areas, if there were
any. We therefore maintain that even this contrived discrepancies are
not sufficient excuse not to sign the budget into law.
“We therefore urge President Buhari to sign the 2016 budget
without any further delay. For every additional day that the president
withholds his assent from the bill, the hardship in the land, which is
already becoming intolerable for the masses of our people gets even more
complicated. Certainly, as primary representatives of the people we
shall not vacate our responsibility and watch the people continue to
suffer unduly.”
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