BEVERLY HILLS, February 20, (THEWILL) – Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Yakubu Dogara has expressed the resolve of National Assembly members to accord maximum support to President Muhammadu Buhari and ensure that his government is not humiliated in ongoing deliberations over the 2017 proposed budget.
He explained that the federal legislature took this decision because most of its members and Buhari all belong to the same political party, the All Progressives Congress, APC.
Dogara stated this in Abuja on Monday morning when he addressed a round-table on the N7.29 trillion budget proposal organised by governors elected on the platform of the APC.
“I must say that the APC as the party with majority in the National Assembly will not allow Mr. President and the APC as the ruling political party to be humiliated or defeated on its budget priorities as we are all part of the same government,” he said.
The Speaker also noted that lawmakers across political divides believe that constituency matters are very crucial to their activities as lawmakers.
“It is however, important to stress that on budget matters members of the National Assembly tend to be very sensitive to their constituency representational functions, irrespective of party,” he said in an apparent reference to the much-criticised practice of earmarking funds for lawmakers to execute projects in their respective constituency.
Dogara went on to update the governors on the progress so far made by the National Assembly in the ongoing debates about the 2017 budget, even as he promised better transparency and accountability in its passage and implementation.
