President Goodluck Jonathan would no longer present the 2013 budget to a joint Session of the National Assembly today.
This was disclosed at senate plenary.
The President had a few weeks ago precisely on September 19, wrote to both chambers of the National Assembly requesting for an audience on Thursday, October 4th, 2012, to present the budget to the federal legislators in a joint session.
But indications that the presentation would not stand emerged as the House of Representatives, while insisting that the 2012 budget performance must first be thoroughly assessed, suspended plenary to enable members carry out oversight functions on the implementation.
It became further clear that the presentation will not hold as planned as the Senate on Tuesday forwarded to its committees on Finance and National Planning, the 2013-2015 Medium Term Fiscal Framework (MTFF) and Fiscal Strategy Paper (FSP) for legislative action with a mandate to hasten and submit their report early next week, which is preparatory to the presentation of the 2013 budget.
But the Senate Leader Victor Ndoma-Egba at plenary yesterday told his colleagues that today’s budget presentation would not hold as “the budget will be presented sometime next week.
So I report that we should clarify the status of that presidential communication so that distinquished senators will not be in any doubt as to whether or not the budget will be laid tomorrow. It will not be laid tomorrow. when a date is communicated it will be read on the floor for the benefit of the senators.”