ZHUL-QI’DA 23, 1429 A.H.
FRIDAY NOVEMBER 21, 2008
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Budget 2009: No official communication, says Bankole
The Speaker, House of Representatives, Hon. Dimeji Bankole, has said that the shelved joint sitting of the Parliament to receive the 2009 Appropriation Bill was not communicated to him.
Addressing members of the House at the resumed sitting, Bankole said members were surprised that the much-publicised budget speech of President Umaru Yar’adua was shifted.
Bankole said: ``Although we have not receive official communication, we were told that the president will not be presenting it (budget) Wednesday, but will be doing it in the nearest future.
NAN reports that the House of Representatives usually sits from 2 p.m to 4 p.m every Wednesday but decided to come early today to listen to the budget presentation by the President, which was slated for noon.
A letter to that effect from President Umaru Yar'Adua was read by the presiding Deputy Speaker Usman Nafada on Tuesday at the plenary session.
No reason was, howewer, adduced for the cancellation of the presentation of the 2009 budget, which had been postponed twice.
NAN investigations showed that the sudden postponement might have been due to the lawmakers complaintt that they were not consulted for their input by the executive before preparing the 2009 Appropriation
It was also learnt that the presidency shifted the date of the presentation to enable it to make more consultation before presenting the budget proposals at a joint sitting of the National Assembly at a later date.
