Tuesday’s Senate resumption of plenary from two weeks recess without
2016 budget on the Order Paper for debate is heightening curiosity as to
what might have gone wrong as some Senators have alleged that the
budget is nowhere to be found at the National Assembly.
DAILY POST
gathered that the budget documents that were laid by President
Muhammadu Buhari early December, 2015 have not been duplicated for
distribution to Senators and members of the House of Representatives due
to paucity of funds, a situation that has created a wild speculation in
some quarters that it has been withdrawn or got missing from the
senate.
A member of the House of Representatives who pleaded
anonymity told DAILY POST that there was no resources for the Committee
to work on those documents for circulation to all members.
“I
can confirm to you that those in rules and Business don’t have
resources to make copies available for us to begin studying it, but
don’t quote my name,” he insisted.
Against expectations that the
budget would be mentioned, the Senate earlier in the day met behind
closed doors for two hours which DAILY POST later gathered that
logistics problems dominated the discussions while some Senators
expressed concerns that if nothing was done to hasten budget debate,
curious Nigerians would be taking on the National Assembly.
Though
the Senate President had in his welcome address reiterated Senate’s
commitment to passing the budget bill into law as quickly as possible, a
member of Senate Committee on Appropriations who pleaded anonymity
noted that it has been a busy holiday, hence, they don’t have time
studying the documents yet.
“We have been on holiday and there was no time yet” he said.
”Thus,
it is a tradition that once the budget is laid, it would be referred to
joint Committees on Finance and Appropriations for sector by Sector
analysis,” he said.
Other reports have, however, claimed that the
budget was missing and that the senate’s executive meeting today was
dominated by the whereabouts of the budget.
Efforts to speak with the Senate Committee Chairman, Danjuma Goje was unsuccessful
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