ABUJA— Pressures by the Presidency on the National Assembly to rewrite the 2016 budget and include critical projects left out in the appropriation bill as passed were at the weekend, slipping into another crisis with the threat of the legislators to veto.
The emerging crisis was in the face of claims by legislators that the budget with the President cannot be rewritten under the law.
The legislators have also dismissed calls for a supplementary budget, saying the only option open to the President was to sign what was passed to him and forward an amendment bill on the 2016 appropriation bill to take care of his interests.
The deadline for the President to sign the 2016 budget as presented to him on March 23 passed at the weekend.
Meanwhile, Vanguard has learned how the election of Senator Ike Ekweremadu as the Deputy President of the Senate, led to the eruption of the crisis in the 2016 budget.
President Buhari has refused assent to the 2016 budget of the Federal Government upon misgivings that a number of critical projects notably, the Calabar-Lagos rail line, were removed by the Senate and House Committees on Appropriation, led by Senator Danjuma Goje and Abdulmmumin Jibrin respectively.
The stand-off has led to pressures on the National Assembly to withdraw the budget transmitted to the President on March 23 and incorporate the projects.
In the face of that pressure, senior officials of the National Assembly have told Vanguard that the constitution did not provide a leeway for rewriting a budget that had already been passed.
The complexity is further worsened by constitutional provisions which give the President a maximum of 30 days to give his assent to the budget bill.
Section 59(4) of the Constitution demands that where the President refuses to sign the appropriation bill within 30 days, the bill should again be presented to the National Assembly sitting at a joint sitting.
There was controversy among constitutional experts in the National Assembly at the weekend as to whether the President is expected to re-present what was passed or present a fresh bill to satisfy his interest on the issues at hand.
A meeting between the Presidency and the National Assembly leadership, expected to hold at the weekend to address the issues of concern, did not hold, sources disclosed.
The section states thus:
“Where the President, within 30 days after the presentation of the bill to him, fails to signify his assent or where he withholds assent, then the bill shall again be presented to the National Assembly sitting at a joint meeting, and if passed by two-thirds majority of members of both houses at such joint meeting, the bill shall become law and the assent of the President shall not be required.”
Upon the constitutional provision, multiple sources in the National Assembly told Vanguard that the current pressures on the National Assembly to rewrite the budget to include some critical projects left out in the appropriation bill as passed could not hold.
Vanguard learned that the National Assembly leaders were expected to, at the meeting, convey the point to the President that the only option opened to him was to sign the budget and forward an amendment bill.
“There is no provision in the constitution that would allow us to incorporate those projects again,” a very senior legislator told Vanguard.
It was also learned that calls on the President to send a supplementary budget would also not be tenable.
“A supplementary budget is only proposed when there is a shortfall in revenue for a project, but what is workable in this case is for the President to sign the budget as sent to him and then send an amendment bill to the 2016 Appropriation Bill to address areas of concern to him,” a legislator familiar with the process told Vanguard.
“You can see that there are no other legal options available to get out of this situation,” the source disclosed.
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