Sufuyan Ojeifo
18 November 2008
Abuja — President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua will present the 2009 Appropriation Bill to the joint sitting of the National Assembly tomorrow.
The President had blamed the delay in the presentation of the budget on the global economic crunch which affected the oil price benchmark on which the appropriation was initially predicated.
The leadership of the two chambers were scheduled to meet yesterday evening over the budget presentation by the President.
Senate President David Mark was expected to lead the principal officers of the Upper House to the meeting with the leadership of the House of Representatives also in attendance.
The President had written to the National Assembly, intimating it of his readiness to present the 2009 Appropriation Bill to both chambers tomorrow.
Deputy Leader of the Senate, Senator Victor Ndoma-Egba (SAN), told THISDAY yesterday that arrangements were afoot to hold a meeting where a decision would be taken on Yar'Adua's plan for tomorrow.
The President is expected, as learnt, after the meeting, to be formally invited through a resolution on the floors of both houses to jointly address them.
Yar'Adua had addressed the National Assembly joint sitting on November 8, last year during which he presented the 2008 budget to the Legislature.
Yar'Adua's address to the joint sitting of the National Assembly tomorrow will be his second since he became president.
But Chairman of the Senate Committee on Media and Information, Senator Ayogu Eze, said it was not mandatory for Yar'Adua to personally come to the National Assembly to address the joint sitting on the budget.
He cited Section 81(1) of the 1999 Constitution, which states, "The President shall cause to be prepared and laid before each House of the National Assembly at any time in each financial year estimates of the revenues and expenditure of the Federation for the next following financial year."
According to Eze, "If he (Yar'Adua) chooses to come, he is welcomed. We do not know the method he is going to employ this time round. If he does not come, he has not breached any law."
Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Mr. Olusegun Adeniyi, had said the 2009 budget proposal would be presented to a joint session of the National Assembly this week.
He had said the actual date would have to be agreed upon between the President and the leadership of the National Assembly.
According to him, "The budget has taken a long time to prepare not only because of the global economic crunch that affected the oil price benchmark but also because the President has had to refocus the efforts of the Ministry of Finance several times to align with his thinking.
"Painstaking effort went into the preparation of the 2009 budget and Mr. President had to change some aspects of our budgeting process which he said had not advanced our quest for development in any way."
The budget, he had said, would focus on security, construction and rehabilitation of more than a thousand kilometres of roads, construction and rehabilitation of bridges as well as food security and water resources.
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