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PRESIDENCY: FG MAY SHUTDOWN UNLESS NATIONAL ASSEMBLY RECONVENES

Refusal of the National Assembly to reconvene to approve presidential requests could result in imminent shutdown of government activities, the Presidency warned on Monday in Abuja.

The presidency’s alarm was the fallout of a meeting among Acting President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo; Senate Leader, Senator Ahmad Lawan; and the Senior Special Assistant to the President on National Assembly Matters, Senator Ita Enang, behind closed doors in the Presidential Villa.

In a briefing with journalists at the end of the meeting, Enang restated calls for the leadership of the National Assembly to reconvene and consider presidential communications, stating that only the reopening of the federal legislature could save the country from imminent shutdown.
According to Enang, the 2018 budget was conceived to be largely financed by foreign loans, pointing out that the exact amount to be borrowed to finance the budget was not clearly stated as stipulated by the extant law.

He however, argued that details were contained in the recent requests submitted by President Muhammadu Buhari to the National Assembly before it proceeded on vacation, adding that the approval was necessary now to enable the government put the machinery in place to secure such loans

He said: “We are still appealing to the National Assembly to reconvene. You remember that we passed the budget with understanding that the greater amount of it would be gotten by foreign loans.
“Although this was approved that there would be loans, the amount to be gotten was not approved. The Fiscal Responsibility Act requires that the president should specifically state the amount the government wants to get from foreign loans and present it before the National Assembly

“That letter has been presented to the National Assembly and the National Assembly has to pass that amount before the money could be obtained from foreign financing institutions. This is what we are asking and if it didn’t happen in the next few months, we may have a complete government shutdown

“What we are receiving from the Federation Accounts as the federal government share of the capital component is not enough to sustain even the 15 or 20 per cent of the budget. So, there may be a complete government shutdown and I know that Nigerians are not going to like it. That is why we are still appealing.”

On who is in control of the majority in the Senate, whether it is the All Progressives Congress (APC) or Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Enang echoed Lawan that more senators had defected from the PDP to APC, adding that the Minority Leader, Senator Godswill Akpabio, would join the league of senators who had defected from PDP to APC in recent times.

“Now the leader of the Senate has said that they are 53, but I want to assure him that the APC has harvested more people from the PDP and other political parties. The head of the PDP in the Senate is formally joining the APC family and that will be in a big ceremony on Wednesday, August 8 in Akwa Ibom State.
“So, the head of the PDP who holds all the documents of the PDP, Senator Godswill Obot Akpabio, is coming over with a great team and other minorities will join the APC family and we are good and strong,” Enang added

THISDAY NEWS