Nationwide Commotion!!! Aso Rock Cabals On The Run, As Senate Passes Vote Of No Confidence On Buhari

The Aso Rock cabals were on Tuesday, thrown into confusion, as the Senate passed a vote of no confidence on the 2017 Budget, over fundamental flaws inherent in the document.

Recall, that a coalition of Civil Societies under the aegis of Citizen Wealth Platform, CWP, had at the opening of a three-day public hearing organised last week by the National Assembly, on the 2017 budget, said it had uncovered a range of frivolous, inappropriate, unclear, and wasteful expenditure proposals in the budget.

According to the group, a range of wasteful, duplicated, and needless proposals, amounting to N151.536 billion, had been identified in the budget.

The group further reported that a number of proposals for which funds had been appropriated in 2016 budget, were again smuggled into the 2017 budget.

At a closed-door session held between the Principal Officers of the Senate and all the Committee Chairmen, on Tuesday, the Senators said contrary to the belief that this year’s budget was better packaged than that of last year; the budget was actually a “mess”.

The Chairmen, were reported to have informed the Senate President, Bukola Saraki, that they could no longer meet the deadline set for the conclusion of the budget process, because the document was characterised by inconsistencies, shortfalls in the spending for 2016 appropriations, and failure or inability of the MDAs to explain how the funds were disbursed.

It was further learnt that the tale of woes by the Committee Chairmen, compelled the Senate President to head for the Presidential Villa, after the meeting yesterday, to relay the Senate’s concern over the budget.

Among the details that the Executive was accused of failing to provide, included proposals on the N500 billion proposed for the social intervention fund ,and N100 billion proposed for housing, among others.

It was also learnt that the Committee Chairmen, also decried the failure of a number of Heads of MDAs to appear before the Senate Committees, and consequently complicated the budget process.

The MDA Heads, were alleged to have stayed away and opted to send representatives for fear of being put on the spot over allegations of budget padding.

The Senators named the Attorney General of the Federation, AGF, and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, among the Heads of MDAs who stayed away during the budget defence.

The highlights of the stalemate identified by Senators during the budget defence, included a sharp disagreement over N700 million in the budget, by the Budget Office and Debt Management Office.

In the end, it was learnt that the meeting resolved that the sub-Committees should carry out a lot of engagements with the MDAs, with a view to helping them to clean up the discrepancies in the budget.