Saraki promises early passage of 2017 budget

Senate President Bukola Saraki on Thursday assured of the early passage of the 2017 budget.

Saraki gave the assurance at the State House, Abuja, while answering questions from State House correspondents after a closed-door meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari.

The senate president, therefore, expressed the readiness of the National Assembly to receive the budget proposal.

“Once the document comes to us, we are ready. I think this time around, a lot of work has taken place behind the scenes – a lot of more collaborations and I think that you will see the result in the time frame it will take after the president will have released his budget.’’

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the Federal Executive Council (FEC) on Wednesday approved the 2017 budget estimates for onward submission to the National Assembly.

NAN further reports that the Minister of Budget and National Planning, Mr Udoma Udo Udoma, who confirmed this development to State House correspondents, said the date for the presentation of the document would be fixed by the National Assembly.

Saraki then expressed optimism that President Buhari would soon transmit a letter to the National Assembly so as to lay the 2017 budget before it.

He also said normalcy had returned to the senate chamber after Wednesday’s incident where some PDP senators staged a walk-out in protest against one of their colleagues, who defected to APC.

He said: “It is a democracy at work. The opposition party has its views about the defection of a senator to the APC.

“Normalcy has been restored to the house and we are one family again.’’