ABUJA— SENATE President, Chief Adolphus Wabara, and Speaker of the House of Representatives, Alhaji Aminu Masari, have agreed to re-convene the National Assembly next week for the purpose of granting President Olusegun Obasanjo’s request for the restoration of N2.5 billion contingency vote in the 2004 budget to execute the state of emergency rule in Plateau State.
The National Assembly is billed to sit for three days to expeditiously consider, among others, the president’s request and the 2004 budget for the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
The two officers met Wednesday in Abuja for several hours where the arrangements for reconvening the legislature, which is on a seven-week recess, were concluded. It was learnt yesterday that the Administrator of Plateau State, General Chris Ali (rtd.), is financially hamstrung in running the state under the present circumstance. He is expected to run his office (not the state) from President Obasanjo’s contingency vote.
President Obasanjo’s request to the National Assembly was predicated on the exclusion of the contingency vote in the 2004 budget passed by the legislature, a development he said had constituted a snag on the path of successful execution of the state of emergency in Plateau, among others.
The request was sent to the National Assembly ahead of the Emergency Powers Regulations he sent to the Assembly. The regulations have been passed into Act, without recourse to Section 3 of the 1961 Emergency Powers Act, on which the president hinged the regulations for the enforcement of the state of emergency in Plateau.
Obasanjo, in the May 17, 2004 letter to the National Assembly, entitled: “Restoration of Contingency Vote in Budget 2004” had said: “It has just come to my attention that the contingency vote of N2.5 billion proposed for inclusion in the 2004 appropriations was either inadvertently or erroneously removed in the approved version of the Act. We now face a situation whereby we are somewhat hamstrung to address unplanned and unexpected emergency situations such as recently occurred in Plateau and Kano States, as the funds that would have given us the flexibility to do so are not available due to the exclusion of the contingency vote from the budget. In the circumstance, I wish to urge the National Assembly to reinstate the contingency vote. In this regard, I propose that the money be appropriated from the balance of extra from predicating the budget on US$25 per barrel of oil instead of US$23 per barrel.”
The observation, as learnt, has been noted and the president’s request would be passed without any difficulty, being the main reason for reconvening the Assembly.
The FCT budget, which was received late by the Appropriations Committee, has also, as gathered, been considered, having been defended by the FCT management with necessary amendments made to it. The Assembly is expected to pass the budget.
