The liaison officer to President Muhammdu Buhari and the House of Representatives, Sumaiala Kawu, on Thursday described the controversy trailing the missing budget as ”laughable.”
Following unconfirmed reports that the 2016 budget presented to the joint session of National Assembly by President Muhammadu Buhari was missing, the Senate President, Dr Bukola Saraki Thursday admitted that the Senior Special Adviser to the President, Senator Ita Enang removed the original copy and replaced with a different copy that was different from the one presented by the President with some conflicting figures.
Enang has, however, refused to comment on the matter, saying it is a sensitive issue ”involving two of my bosses, the National Assembly and Presidency. I don’t want to talk about them.”
Reacting to this,however, Kawu said the President laid a single document before the lawmakers after which the Budget Office or National Planning Commission is expected to make copies.
He said, “It is a surprise to us and Mr President in particular; it is laughable. We just laughed when we heard of it.”
“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.”
Kawu,however,acknowledge that the Presidency has been lobbying members of the National Assembly to review the oil benchmark which was no longer in tune with 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“Even if the document must be withdrawn, it must be done legally and there are laid down means of doing that, which the President can explore.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,” he said.
He stated that the matter was an act of mischief by unscrupulous elements and lack of communication between the Executive and legislature.
Leaping to Ita Enang’s defence, Kawu said, “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”.
The Presidential aid disclosed that there was no plan to withdraw the budget over the crashing global oil price.
“We will not withdraw the budget because the Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) has taken into consideration a situation like this.
“We are aware that for Saudi Arabia to raise her domestic oil price and the United States exporting oil means there’s a problem.
“That was the reason why diversification of economy is a priority to this government, this budget wasn’t oil-dependent,” Kawu said.
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