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Obasanjo
lobbies NASS members over
2005 budget presentation
By
Paul Mumeh and Chuks Ehirim (Abuja)
Amidst
the nation wide sit-at-home action declared by the Nigeria Labour Congress
over the increase in the pump price of petroleum products, President
Olusegun Obasanjo will today
present the 2005 budget to a joint session of the National
Assembly.
Coming three months ahead of the end of the year, the leadership of
the federal legislature said it would enable them make necessary inputs
into the budget unlike the previous arrangements.
But
Obasanjo is afraid that the 2005 budget may attract some criticisms from
the National Assembly, hence he moved last night to lobby the members
against such.
According
to sources close to the meeting which lasted late into the night, the NASS
members are not happy with the president over the performance of the 2004
budget which they said, achieved less than 20 percent
implementation.
Cognisance
of the pending embarrassment, the PDP leadership quickly convened the
meeting apparently to clear the coast for today�s presentation by the
President.
One
the sources had told Daily Independent
that the existence of the Due Process Office has not even helped matters
with regard to implementation and performance of the 2004 budget.
The
National Assembly has just returned from assessment of the performances of
ministries and parastatals otherwise called oversight
functions.
Chairman
Senate Committee on Appropriation and Finance, John Azuta Mbata, allayed
fears that Obasanjo could postpone the budget presentation on account of
the on going strike on Monday, saying the national assembly is not on
strike.
Ahead
of today�s presentation of the 2005 Appropriation Bill to the National
Assembly, scores of senators assured on Monday that the exercise would go
on as scheduled.
President
Obasanjo last week requested the National Assembly to allow him present
the budget estimate today (12/10/04) for consideration.
Chairman
Senate Committee on Information, Tawar Wada, his downstream petroleum
counterpart and business and rules, Senators Emmanuel Agboti and Ibrahim
Tsauri made the position known.
Wada
was optimistic that the budget presentation will go on because it is a
core function, which touches on the lives of
Nigerians.
�Although the strike is on, the
issue of budget cannot be stopped. The National Assembly is not part of
the strike. Even if some staff are part of it, the question of 2005 budget
is superior to every other issue and will be given due preference�, Wada
stated.
In
his comment, chairman senate committee on downstream petroleum, Agboti
pleaded with Nigerians to pay more attention to the positive economic
effects of the deregulation of the oil sector rather than harping on its
negative consequences.
Meanwhile,
the national assembly complex was almost like a ghost town Monday as
workers obeyed the stay-at-home order by labour.
Most
of the offices visited by Daily Independent
were virtually empty.
A
handful of workers who reported for duty merely roamed about for a while
and immediately returned home.
A
combined team of armed army and police took effective control of all the
entry and exit gates of the national assembly carrying out thorough
screening of both workers and legislators alike.
The
battle ready security officials stationed two armoured tanks at main gate
of the national assembly while others patrolled the streets of Abuja in
search of victims.
Government
business and commercial concerns were paralysed for the greater part of
the day in Abuja while the strike lasted.
He
however regretted the strike action and urged all the principal actors to
allow reason to prevail.
Only
a fraction of all Nigerians, Agboti said, would benefit from the subsidy
being canvassed by the people.
On
his part, Senator Tsauri stated that the strike was ill timed but urged
the federal government and the oil marketers to revert to old pump
prices.
�We should not only prevail on
labour to call off strike, we should also be able to talk to Mr. President
to revert to the old prices too�, Tsauri stated.
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