Controversy Trails Missing 2016 Budget …Presidency Reacts …Buhari, Saraki Hold Closed Door Meeting

L-R: House of Representatives’ Minority Leader, Rep. Leo Ogor; Rep. Jerry Alagbaoso and Rep. Lovett Idisi, at a news conference by the PDP caucus in the House of Representatives on the detention of PDP’s Spokesman, Olisa Metu, in Abuja, yesterday

Yesterday’s Senate resumption of plenary from two weeks recess without the 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.
Our correspondent gathered that the budget documents that were laid before the Senate 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due to paucity of funds, a situation that has created a wild speculation in some quarters that it has been withdrawn or got missing from the Senate.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 newsmen that there were 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, to discuss logistics problems while some Senators expressed concerns that if nothing was done to hasten budget debate, curious Nigerians would take 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.
Meanwhile, as the controversy surrounding the alleged disappearance of copies of the 2016 Appropriation Bill personally submitted to the National Assembly by President Muhammadu Buhari gains more reactions, the Presidency has distanced itself from the disappearance of both the hard and soft copies of the budget proposal.
“By tradition, once the budget is submitted, it ceases to be our property,” the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, said yesterday.
The Senate President Abubakar Bukola Saraki has met with President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa since the bill was declared missing.
The meeting between the two leaders in his office lasted for over one hour. But the Senate President declined comments on the missing budget when confronted by State House correspondents.
However, Garba insisted that the National Assembly and not the Presidency can explain the alleged disappearance, while noting that the President had not withdrawn the budget.
He said, “nobody except the President can withdraw the budget. As far as we know, he has not done that.
“The copies in their hundreds have been delivered to both chambers of the National Assembly. Enquiries as to where it is should be directed to the appropriate quarters.”
Efforts to speak with the Senate Committee Chairman, Danjuma Goje was unsuccessful.
In a related development in what appears to be a desperate attempt to save the Senate from ridicule, the Senate President, Dr. Abubakar Saraki, yesterday afternoon paid a visit to President Muhammadu Buhari at the State House in Abuja.
The meeting was not open to the press as it held behind closed doors.
There was no clue as to whether the visit was connected to the alleged missing 2016 budget which has been submitted to the National Assembly.
Attempts made by State House Correspondents to confirm or refute the missing budget were unproductive as Saraki did not comment when asked.
It would be recalled the 2016 budget proposal submitted to the National Assembly by President Muhammadu Buhari has been reportedly missing.
President Buhari had on Tuesday, December 22, 2015, presented the budget proposal of N6.08trillion to the joint session of the National Assembly.
But about two weeks later, news of the withdrawal of the budget filtered round.
The disappearance of the budget document was announced during a closed door session at the National Assembly that lasted 90 minutes.
Senate Leader, Ali Ndume was said to have made the disclosure during the closed door session, even as the Senators were supposed to commence the consideration of the N6.08trillion budget yesterday.
Ndume, shocked lawmakers at a closed-door session, when he told them the budget documents had been stolen.
He explained that deliberation on the budget could therefore not begin until fresh copies of the documents were obtained from the presidency, the Ministry of Finance or that of National Planning.
The Chairman, Senate Committee of Appropriation, Danjuma Goje, was subsequently mandated to lead a search for the documents and liaise with the Presidency, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on National Assembly Matters, Ita Enang, and the National Planning Ministry on the matter.
The Senators also resolved that the matter be kept under wraps, saying making it public could embarrass the Presidency, the National Assembly and the country.
Our sources said senators of the Peoples Democratic Party accused the Presidency of being behind the theft of the documents, an accusation rejected by their All Progressives Congress’ counterparts, who reportedly said it was too early to speculate.
Some lawmakers said they are suspicious that the Presidency might have colluded with the management of the National Assembly to quietly withdraw the documents after detecting some discrepancies in them.
“Can you imagine this kind of national embarrassment?” one senator asked. “Documents that were presented to us with fanfare have been stolen.”
The spokesperson for the Senate, Aliyu Abdullahi, could not be reached for comments. So also is Senator Danjuma Goje, the chairman of the appropriation committee.
President Muhammad Buhari had on December 22,2015 presented a N6.08 trillion budget for the fiscal year 2016 to a joint session of the National Assembly.
It was the first time in three years a Nigerian President would personally present a budget before the National Assembly.
Copies were, however, not distributed to lawmakers before they proceeded on Christmas and New Year holidays.
But weeks after the budget was presented to lawmakers, there were speculations that President Buhari had withdrawn the documents to enable him to correct some discrepancies, a claim the presidency and the national planning ministry denied.
In the budget, capital expenditure takes N1.8 trillion, marking a significant over 300 per cent increment from the 2015 vote of N557 billion.
According to the estimate, N396billion is voted for education, being the largest sectoral allocation.
The health sector gets N296 billion while defence has N294 billion