The ongoing face-off over the 2017 budget, may not be over soon, as the Senate President, Bukola Saraki and Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, are warming up to battle the Acting President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo.

Ripples Nigeria gathered that the Acting President has assembled a number of Senior Advocates of Nigeria (SANs) and lawyers, who are members of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) to prepare their brief and be on standby to challenge the alleged insertions and increment of the 2017 budget.

Recall that Professor Osinbajo, had last week, said that the National Assembly had no right to introduce new projects or modify those contained in an appropriation bill.

Osinbajo had alleged: “This last budget, the president presented it last December. Despite the assurances that it will be passed in by February, it was not until May.

“As it turned out, we were quite disappointed that it spent a bit of time before it was approved. And thereafter, we had to go into negotiations with the National Assembly in order to get it right.

“Now, there are these two broad issues about who can do what. The first report is about who can do what. When you present a budget to the National Assembly, it is presented as a bill, an appropriation bill. “And secondly, do not introduce entirely new projects and all of that or modify projects. This is something that we experienced last year and this year again. It now leaves the question about who is supposed to do what.”

Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Mr Babatunde Fashola, also in a recent interview, mocked the National Assembly and questioned its powers to introduce new projects into the constitution or raise the budget.

Fashola said in the interview: “I do not think that they (National Assembly) can sit down and legislate projects that are not federal projects, that would be doing violence to the constitution because there are three levels of government. The local and state governments have their responsibilities and the federal government should be building federal roads not state roads.

“In my budget, you will find things like motorised boreholes, primary health care centres. That is a violation of the constitution, it shouldn’t be in the appropriation law of the federal government. If the judiciary decides that it is the National Assembly that should make the budget and hand it over to the executive to implement, so be it.”

Saraki, while presiding over last Thursday’s plenary, fired back that the “Senate will continue to defend the constitution and ensure that anything we do is in line with the laws of the land.”

Saraki had added: “I want to say that there are times we have a number of consultations and I want to make it clear that these consultations we do with the executive will not at any time mean that we will give up the powers we have in line with the Constitution.

“I want to reassure our members on this because it is very important based on what we have heard. You may be concerned that one way or another, leadership had given up some of these powers. That is not the case.

“But I believe that as responsible statesmen, there are times we consult and do our best to work with the Executive and assist them. But as we bend backwards, I do not think that should be misrepresented that powers given to us in the constitution do not exist. That is not the case.”

But in the recent development, Ripples Nigeria reliably gathered that the Executive may file a case against the National Assembly at the Supreme Court, which in this case, is the court of first instance.
A source who spoke to our correspondent in confidence, said: “The fact is that the National Assembly has been monitoring developments on the budget and gathered that Osinbajo is seeking legal opinions from all the SANs in the cabinet. Remember Fashola recently came out with his own opinion where he said the National Assembly went beyond its powers in certain parts of the budget.

“Itse Sagay has also expressed his opinion. All these men have been directed to produce their opinion as a memo to Acting President Yemi Osinbajo through his Chief of Staff, Mr. Ade Ipaye. Also, the Acting President is contacting some other constitutional law experts.

“These moves are known to the National Assembly and it is believed to be preparing to file a suit at the Supreme Court. The National Assembly does not want to be caught unawares or ambushed, so it is monitoring events and the leadership has decided that they will respond appropriately to any move by the Executive.

“They believe such a move will strengthen the Presidential System, separation of powers and the rule of law. The Supreme Court verdict will also settle the lingering issue once and for all”, our source opined.

https://www.ripplesnigeria.com/2017-budget-osinbajo-consults-sans-may-drag-nass-supreme-court/#

But do the NASS have such power?

Saraki and his co-travelers are overstepping their bounds. What constitutional power do they have to insert projects into an executive budget? And even reducing very important projects such as railway and inter-state bridge, but then including LG projects into same?

when is buhari coming back?

It is better because if this in not done to correct it now the legislooters would continue to think they have the right. to do insertion into the budget.

Why did he sign it in the first place?

The 8th NASS has arrogated too much powers to itself - all for self aggrandizements and not for the people whom it is supposedly representing.

The NASS is a too expensive, unnecessary evil that the country can do a whole lot without.

ugofr:
when is buhari coming back?

Make this man come back oo, this people are trying to mess things up

rottennaija:


Make this man come back oo, this people are trying to mess things up

if he likes, his presence worsens situation...mumu people

Let the do the needful, at least PYO is learned

so president osinbade thinks he can write a shopping list, with cooked up figures, and give to cook sareki who will approve everything without question?

d judiciary will stall d case forever.

lets start d recall process of saraki

and by d way, d process of recall has to change in d next amendment, too rigorous

Confused cum corrupt FG versus corrupt NASS Can the APC government pls spare us all these embarrassing charades while they await their final booting out Enough of all these shit.

The law war begins

In a democracy that operates in federalism, this is a very normal development that will clarify the lines between the 3 tiers of government. This practice of the legislature inserting projects in the appropriation bills happens quite often in the United States. They call it "Pork barrel" spending.

Although, it does highlight the greedy overreaching ambition of this Legislature headed by Saraki/Dogara, but on the flip side, it's normal for the Executive and Legislative branches to test the limits of their powers and it will be left for the Judiciary to determine who will be the last man standing.

At the end of the day, our system of government is evolving and will come out stronger.

EdCure:
The 8th NASS has arrogated too much powers to itself - all for self aggrandizements and not for the people whom it is supposedly representing.

The NASS is a too expensive, unnecessary evil that the country can do a whole lot without.

If this is the only sensible thing you would say all year long, I completely agree with you.

989900:
Die Saraki, die!

This menace (Saraki) is what Buhari has ignorantly allowed, and now we all will have to pay for it.

Fashola is a SAN, Osinbajo is a professor of Law, I trust their better judgement in interpretation of the law than this 'silver-spoon-criminal-opportunist' Saraki and his gang of thieves.

Let's just ammend the laws and let the NASS prepare the budget!

Took them mfxckers 6 months to approve the budget just so they can steal more, after all the immoral wages they receive -- we should pay more attention to how we elect our so called governors and 'lawbreakers'.

Amin Asé!, baba mi. Make hin die throway.

6 months delay was a deliberate attempt at tying the hands of the executive.

When things like this happen, I just miss Obj's presidency so badly.. As in, who born the maga!

ugofr:
when is buhari coming back?

Madam, Be Wise

omenkaLives:
When things like this happen, I just miss Obj's presidency so badly.. As in, who born the maga!

Sir, permit me to write his name in full. Olusegun Obasanjo's presidency. By now, Saraki would have become a floor member.

Atimes I wish incurable diseases visit these legislooters and I believe it will be so since they are wired by default to defraud, loot and endanger the life of millions of Nigerians.

These fools reduced budget allocation of road construction for Lagos-Ibadan and 2nd Niger bridge/Anambra-Enugu interstate respectively from N31b to N10b for demeaning borehole, primary health care, bla bla projects which already has been captured under Local govt/NGO portfolio.

Saraki is not only wicked but a pathetic demon that needs to be surge out of Nigeria politics

wristbangle:
Atimes I wish incurable diseases visit these legislooters and I believe it will be so since they are wired by default to defraud, loot and endanger the life of millions of Nigerians.

These fools reduced budget allocation of road construction for Lagos-Ibadan and 2nd Niger bridge/Anambra-Enugu interstate respectively from N31b to N10b for demeaning borehole, primary health care, bla bla projects which already has been captured under Local govt/NGO portfolio.

Saraki is not only wicked but a pathetic demon that needs to be surge out of Nigeria politics

Bukola Saraki, a misbegotten spawn of mongrel Kwara infiltrators who's family now ended up raping the destiny of Kwara State into oblivion.
APC primarily failed when the abandoned Quality Control at the point when spent&spoilt PDP runaways stormed their gates looking for escape options from their innumerable past sins.

Error No. 2 was also turning blind eye and waging selective "anti-corruption wars" while practically "canonizing" rettarded chameleons like Amaechi, obvious thieves like Burutai, Babachir & co! That, sent a wrong message to tenacious furkers like Saraki who, even though are younger, but can easily quadruple everything capacity Buhari can boast in political maneuvering!
They were like Xeon Processors to his Pentium 2! And Bubu/APC thinking they could manage such a possessed set of sadistic lootocrats was showing yet another sign of his rapidly spreading senility but zombies were too hyped to observe that obvious fact!

The Nigerian Senate represents everything wrong with the country; the BH id1ots should have started their bombing from there, blown them right out of the water, the furkers!

omenkaLives:
When things like this happen, I just miss Obj's presidency so badly.. As in, who born the maga!

Saraki is not doing bad bro, love him or hate him he's doing everything in the interest of the masses

Daviddson:
Saraki and his co-travelers are overstepping their bounds. What constitutional power do they have to insert projects into an executive budget? And even reducing very important projects such as railway and inter-state bridge, but then including LG projects into same?

You lie bro. Why we have the three arms of government is for check and balances. To prevent dictatorship, bigotry, Tribalism Nepotism etc. When it comes to budgets It is the duty of the NASS To SCRUTINIZE the budgets and also monitor to budget. Sum norms are taken to avoid Inflation of the budget or writing one budget in 2, 3 forms.

Ideally, the NASS members are supposed to do a proper findings on each budget. They have the power to alter a budget. But I doubt if the have the power to bring in a NEW budget in someone else budget. Rather, they should hv made a recommendation to that person.
In conclusion, The NASS don't have the power to add a new budget to someone's else budget, But the have the power to alter( the financial aspect of it not the procedures).

gberra:
Madam, Be Wise

wise like you, I guess.

gberra:
Madam, Be Wise

wise like you, I guess.

ugofr:
wise like you, I guess. wise like you, I guess.

As a young woman, you should listen to me & not argue. Learn to be wise.

With PMB poisoned and out of the way deceit and cynicism has returned to governance.

Viper Osinbajo is an imperialist stooge who was installed in VP position by imperialists to replace Buhari at a time of imperialist's choosing.

Osinbajo and Saraki were both sponsored by the same imperialists and they are both secretly working together to sabotage any further development of the country and reverse all positive accomplishments of the Buhari administration.

So after snaketor Saraki sat on the budget for nearly 6months, Viper Osinbajo also sat on it for further 1month after Saraki eventually appropriated it.

Both conspired to keep the details of the budget bill passed by Saraki secret from Nigerians.

Now after wasting and additional month to assent to the secret budget bill, Viper Osinbajo is feigning disapproval of the budget he has already assented to.

989900:
Die Saraki, die!

This menace (Saraki) is what Buhari has ignorantly allowed, and now we all will have to pay for it.

Fashola is a SAN, Osinbajo is a professor of Law, I trust their better judgement in interpretation of the law than this 'silver-spoon-criminal-opportunist' Saraki and his gang of thieves.

Let's just ammend the laws and let the NASS prepare the budget!

Took them mfxckers 6 months to approve the budget just so they can steal more, after all the immoral wages they receive -- we should pay more attention to how we elect our so called governors and 'lawbreakers'.

amen x1000000

.......and the political chess game continues with their supporters cheering them on