President Muhammadu Buhari receives budget details

President Muhammadu Buhari yesterday received the details of the 2016 Appropriation Bill from the National Assembly.

 Buhari had insisted on getting and scrutinising the budget details before assenting to the bill passed by the National Assembly.

The 1,800-page budget details was signed for and collected on behalf of the President by the Chief of Staff, Abba Kyari, at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

 He received it from the President’s Senior Special Assistant on National Assembly Matters (Senate), Ita Enang; and the Senior Special Assistant on National Assembly Matters (House of Representatives), Samaila Kawu.

  After getting the document, Kyari led Enang and Kawu to Buhari’s office where they met briefly.

 They came out from the President’s office a few minutes later, with Enang still holding on to the document.

 Briefing State House correspondents, Enang said constitutional procedure would now follow the formal submission of the document.

 He said: “The budget details was transmitted to Mr. President today; the constitutional process begins thereafter.

 “We have transmitted it to the Office of the President and the constitutional process of timing starts.”

The receipt of the budget details coincided with ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo’s denial of ever signing Appropriation Bills without details.

When Buhari insisted on receiving details of the 2016 Budget before signing the bill into law, some members of the House of Representatives claimed that Obasanjo and the late President Musa Yar’Adua signed Appropriation Bills into law without receiving the budget details.

Fielding questions from State House correspondents after meeting with Buhari at the Presidential Villa, Obasanjo denied the claim.

He replied the question with: “Eh en? I signed budget without details? Anybody who told you that, go and ask him again.”

Asked to speak on the 2016 Budget, he said: “Before I will be able to tell you something about the budget, I have to read it and know what it contains and know what to talk about.”

On the delay in signing the budget, he said the constitution allows the executive to continue with the budget provided it does not go beyond the previous year’s budget up to the middle of the year.

Obasanjo declined to speak on the corruption war, saying: “Eh en?”

 Asked to speak on the travail of the Senate President Bukola Saraki, Obasanjo said: “Eh en? What is wrong with him?”

On the purpose of his visit, he said: “You know that not too long ago, I was out there. I have come to share some of my experiences with him.”

When asked to speak on the experiences, he said: “Ha! Ha! If I say I shared experiences with my wife, you will ask me wetin I talk with my wife?”

Obasanjo, who arrived the Villa around 12:13 pm in a tinted black Toyota Sports Utility Vehicle (SUV) marked ABJ 425 PY, exchanged pleasantries with reporters, who cracked a joke with him on his “dancing steps” in Ebonyi State during the burial of the late mother of Ebonyi State Governor Dave Umahi last week.

When reminded that his dancing steps were great, he replied: “So you don’t want me to dance?”.