Leadership (Abuja)
By Golu Timothy
20 November 2008
Abuja — Fresh facts have emerged as to why President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua shelved the presentation of the proposed 2009 budget to the National Assembly which would have taken place yesterday. The president was billed to address a joint session of the federal legislature with a framework of the expected financial roadmap as part of early preparations towards achieving the objectives of the budget for next year. But the submission could not take place as arranged.
LEADERSHIP gathered from impeccable sources at both the presidency and the national assembly that the decision to put on hold the event, was a consensus of both leaderships so as to ensure that no side is left or kept in darkness as the practice in the past, regarding the details of the proposal. According to the sources," The postponement of the budget presentation is purely on its merit. Unlike what used to happen, the present government is desperate in consolidating cordiality in relationship between the arms of government, especially the legislature and the executive. The only way to avoid any crisis or misunderstanding is to work together, agree on common focus and direction so that each side will be satisfied with the processes and the end result. The new presidency has a lot of respect for the national assembly and therefore would not take any intentional action that would rock the boat of governance. It is true that the presidency shelved the presentation so as to finalise any seeming areas of contention with the national assembly, and that to me is in the best interest of the nation. The action of Mr President is commendable in view of what happened on last year's budget. If you remember, there was a little bone of contention on the facts and figures of the 2008 budget as the legislature and the executive had different understandings, interpretations and expectations of that budget. That was responsible for most of the delays witnessed in the passage of the budget", a president source told our correspondent in confidence.
On its part, the national assembly said there is nothing wrong with the postponement of the budget presentation by the president, because, "It is in the interest of both of us. Our leadership met the presidency with the proposal to do so because of some critical reasons, which the president gladly consent to. We want to exhaust all avenues of constructive engagement and consultations on the budget before accepting it as an official document. We at the national assembly needed to add our input in the budget before it is received as there will be no any legislative alterations after if has been presented. What I mean is that, we have our constituency projects at the forefront of our consideration which we placed before the president and he understood. We could not add them before the planned presentation so we needed time to put all these to cover our demands. Remember the public had blamed us of trying to frustrate the president regarding the 2008 budget. The Nigerian public had seen us as confrontational to the executive as that has given us a bad image which we want to redeem and vindicate ourselves. We are representing people and we have their aspirations on our tables so we need to protect that. In short, the action will put to rest any possibility of conflict and crisis as all grey areas will be addressed before hand", a top member of the senate appropriation committee had told our correspondent.
The duo commended plans by the government to commence early preparations for next year's budget which will go along way to solve unanticipated problems.
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