By Haruna Salami
The Senate Leader, Ahmad Lawan has described the 2019 budget presented to the joint session of the National Assembly by President Muhammadu Buhari as a budget of consolidation.
Speaking with journalists Wednesday after the presentation, Lawan said the budget showed the desire of the administration to build on the foundation it has laid in departure from what it inherited in 2015.
According to him the government came when the revenue accruecable to it were far less than what the previous PDP government had, but what is working for them is that “with President Muhammadu Buhari at the helm of affairs, it is not easy to steal and the little we have has been put to maximum use”.
Senator Lawan who expressed sadness over the manner his colleagues behaved during the budget presentation said in his almost 20 years as a legislator in the National Assembly he has never seen that kind of unruly behaviour by lawmakers.
President Buhari’s budget speech was frequently interjected with “it’s a lie”, “campaign speech” “propaganda” and a song “freedom comes with struggle” by those opposed to Buhari while his supporters clapping and raising their four finger as a sign of another term of four years.
Lawan said “I’m in my 20th year in the National Assembly from the House of Representatives to the Senate, I have never witnessed anything like this. For 16 years – 1999-2025 those of us in the opposition behaved so well whenever budget presentation by PDP president would take place; we conducted ourselves with dignity because the president is an office that must be respected”, adding that “no matter have partisan you are, there are times you shelve politics”.
President Buhari presented a budget of N8.83 trillion for the 2029 fiscal year.