A 15-member high-powered committee has been set up by the Presidency and the leadership of the National Assembly to sort out grey areas in the controversial 2016 Appropriations Bill.
BusinessDay gathered that Vice President Yemi Osinbajo is to lead the five members of the Presidency team with the ten members drawn from the National Assembly.
The House of Representatives team is to be chaired by Yussuff Lasun, Deputy Speaker, while other members are Ibrahim Babangida, chairman, House Committee on Finance, Jibrin Abdulmumin, chairman, House Committee on Appropriations; Binta Bello, Minority Whip and one other unnamed lawmaker, BusinessDay gathered.
The committee was set up during the closed door session held on resumption for Wednesday’s plenary session, chaired by Speaker Yakubu Dogara.
According to a lawmaker who spoke confidentially with our correspondent, the National Assembly delegation that met with President Buhari led by Senate President Bukola Saraki and Speaker Yakubu Dogara, agreed to remove all the padded Constituency projects.
According to the lawmaker who attended the closed door session held before the commencement of the Wednesday plenary, the National Assembly delegation agreed to considerably reduce the sum voted for Constituency projects of the principal officers and members of both chambers, ranging between N2.5 billion and N3.5 billion.
“There were things that were inserted by the committee chairmen that were not originally in the budget, like road projects, they will all be removed. So we agreed to remove anything that was not originally provided for,” he confirmed.
He added that both parties also resolved to accommodate the N60 billion proposed for the Lagos-Calabar rail project as well as other critical projects highlighted in the letter sent to Saraki and Dogara last week.
When asked why the budget was not sent in line with standard legislative practice, the lawmaker said that it would cause constitutional crisis, stressing that the National Assembly may eventually adopt the N6.066 trillion passed in the harmonised budget which the President declined to assent to.
At the closed door session, some aggrieved lawmakers expressed displeasure over the purported high-handedness of Danjuma Goje and Jibrin Abdulmumin, the chairmen of both the Senate and House Committees on Appropriations, who allegedly masterminded the budget crisis.
While some demanded for Abdulmumin removal as the Chairman of the Committee on Appropriations, the source disclosed that the lawmaker had earlier threatened to ‘spill the beans’.
The meeting which was initiated by the Presidency was aimed at resolving the crisis trailing the removal of some critical projects and reduction of the amount proposed for the 2016 budget proposal, as well as the insertion of unknown projects by members of the Senate and House Committees on Appropriations.
“They have resolved the problem at the meeting held with the President. Even the President also realised that it won’t be nice to continue to face-off, so he has conceded to sign the budget when we eventually send the budget back to him for assent,” the chairman of one of the standing committees told BusinessDay, prior to the Wednesday legislative business.
When the plenary eventually opened, Speaker Yakubu Dogara did not brief on the outcome of the closed door session, against the usual practice.
KEHINDE AKINTOLA
