saying it should “stop engaging in surreptitious
campaigns of calumny against it in order to
cover up its serial errors”.
He said: “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.
“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.”
Earlier, the Presidency had cried foul that the
national assembly removed the provision made in the
2016 budget.
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