National Assembly to reconcile on budget presentation, says House leader

The current face-off between the Senate and the House of Representatives over the venue of the budget presentation would not last, as both chambers would soon reverse to the tradition of holding joint sessions to receive budgets from President Umaru Yar’Adua and future leaders, the house leader, Tunde Akogun, has said.

Mr. Yar’Adua had, last week, presented the 2010 budget to the National Assembly by proxy. His special adviser on national assembly affairs, Mohammed Abba Aji, had laid the budget before the two chambers, separately. Mr Yar’Adua has one more main budget to send to the legislature before his tenure expires in 2011.

A need for continuity

Mr. Akogun told journalists that the tradition of presenting the budget before a joint session by the President, which he said has lasted 10 years in the country, must be sustained to allow for continuity of policies in the administration.

He recalled that, throughout the eight year rule of former president Olusegun Obasanjo, budget estimates were always read out to senators and house members in a joint sitting at the chamber of the House of Representatives. He also said there was nothing wrong with presenting the budget to the two chambers separately.

“The way the budget came is constitutional,” he said. “The only thing is that it was away from the 10 year convention which both houses have been meeting in a joint session over the budget.

“We have only missed a state of the nation address by Mr President. That of course has sent signals that something is definitely wrong. But not too drastically wrong that it cannot be mended. I believe that things will be better as soon as possible. When things are sorted out, we will definitely go back to our tradition of receiving budget estimates from Mr. President.”

The house leader, who was among the 44-member team of the House in the National Assembly Joint Committee on Constitution Review (JCCR) that walked out of the JCCR retreat in Minna, Niger State early this year, also expressed optimism that the relationship between the two chambers would return to normal, adding that both need one another to make laws for the country.