Drama As Reps Stop Minister From Budget Defence

The budget drama at the House of Representatives continued on Monday as the Joint Committees on Telecommunications/Information Communication Technologies again stopped the Minister of Communications, Mr. Adebayo Shittu, from defending his ministry’s budget proposal.The House had

 last week turned the minister away on the grounds that his ministry’s budget proposal was different from President Muhammadu Buhari’s proposals. The session with the minister was barely five minutes in progress when one of the co-chairmen, Mr. Saheed Fijabi, asked that the meeting should be called off.Fijabi said, “We are dealing with two budgets here. What the minister is presenting is
different from what Mr. President gave us.“We have to agree on whether to accept his own or we stop him and take another date.”His colleagues, led by Mr. Mohammed Onawo, backed Fijabi.“Onawo said, “The power of appropriation lies with the legislature and we are bound by law to do what is right.“From the figures available to us, we have to work in the interest of the nation. We have to do the needful.”The session ended abruptly as Shittu was directed to take the budget back and re-work it.Shittu earlier gave the highlights of the budget as N5bn (capital projects); N600m (personnel cost); and N240m (overhead cost).Meanwhile, the House of Representatives Committee on Appropriation said on Monday that the 2016 budget would be passed “not later than second week of March” by the National Assembly.The Chairman of the committee, Mr. Abdulmumin Jibrin, made the disclosure in Abuja as the standing committees of the House began to submit their reports to the Appropriation Committee for collation.