Senator Dino Melaye representing Kogi
West, Thursday told President Muhammadu Buhari to stop playing to the gallery
and milking the naivety of the masses over the 2018 budget.
A statement by the lawmaker said,
“I notice that PMB is trying to whip up sentiments against the National Assembly
again by alleging that the 2018 budget was padded.
“What the President is authorised
to do constitutionally is to present the National Assembly with a bill. A bill
is a work in progress and not the finished work.
“The reason the Constitution
directs the Bill to be submitted to the N/A is that it expects the N/A to vet
it and make inputs into such a Bill before passing it as the Appropriation Act.
“The National Assembly is not
just expected to rubber stamp whatever bill the President presents. If this was
the norm then there would have been no need for the Constitution to direct that
the Bill be submitted to the N/A in the first place”.
It is on this premise that the
lawmaker said, “Mr. President should therefore refrain from playing to the
gallery and milking the naivety of the masses on the issue”.
The statement reads in part, “In
any event, he reserves the prerogative of refusing to append his signature to
the Bill passed if it meets with his displeasure. He is also free to return the
Bill to the NASS unsigned with a note indicating his areas of disaffection.
“Therefore Mr. President should
halt his chicanery and smear campaign of the National Assembly.
“I also ask, in the last three
years of this administration: What has been the percentage of implementation of
capital budget?
The powers and authority of the
National Assembly can not be eroded by the presidency.
“The National Assembly is not a
department of the Presidency”.
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