Drama of "missing" budget laughable, mischievous - Presidency

To the presidency, the drama in the Senate over the "missing" budget is laughable.

According to the President's Liaison Officer to the House of Representatives, Sumaila Kawu, Buhari cannot ask his agents to steal the budget and has no reason to have it smuggled out when he knows there are legal means to explore if he needed to withdraw the document.

He said that the rumor surrounding the budget proposal may have been informed by the locking away of the document in the office of the Clerk of the National Assembly.

His words :
“It is a surprise to us and Mr President in particular; it is laughable. We just laughed when we heard of it.

“Being a joint sitting , Mr President laid  one document on the floor; then it is for the Budget Office or National Planning Commission (NPC) to make copies.

“In this case, once it was laid, the Clerk of the National Assembly locked the document in his office because of the time of the year; it was holiday period and the lawmakers were going on holiday.

“The confusion might have been as a result of that, but our concern in this matter is why we were dragged into it.

“Actually, as our job entails, we lobbied the National Assembly to take a second look at the oil benchmark because our projection was no longer in tune with the current reality.

“We lobbied the National Assembly on the benchmark; it was not illegal or alien to legislature world over and it has nothing to do with stealing or smuggling it out of the Senate.

“We, as the Executive, have to take account of the volatile nature of oil price. The National Assembly was aware of this, but notwithstanding we still have no reason to withdraw it.

“Even if the document must be withdrawn, it must be done legally and there are laid down means of doing that, which the President can explore.

“Buhari will be the last person to assign his agent to be involved in such illegality.”

Kawu described the unfortunate drama surrounding the budget as the work of mischief makers.

Kawu also defended Senator Ita Enang on the allegation of doctoring the budget proposal by the Senate.

“Enang is a hands-on legislator that knows the rules. He was Chairman of Rules and Business committees of the House and Senate, so he knows the rules.

“This is the same lawmaker that tackled the then Minister of Finance, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, on different versions of Budget being implemented.

“He is very much aware of what is at stake and couldn’t have involved himself in such an illegality," he said.