According to reports from some news outlets, it has been discovered that the Presidency will begin an investigation into the allegations of a padded budget.
The Presidency suspects that top officials in the Senate and the House of Assembly conspired to cook up a budget that was fraught with irregularities so as to frustrate the President and make it near impossible for him to work with.
This it is suspected comes from allegations that some members of senate are upset with Buhari over his neutrality in the ongoing trial of Senate President Bukola Saraki whom they believe the President should support.
In view of this, it is possible according to the Presidency that the heads of some government parastatals and agencies will roll over this matter as the Presidency continues its investigations.
Speaking on the matter, a source that chose to remain anonymous said, “The executive is investigating the level of complicity of heads of parastatals, who are suspected to have colluded with the National Assembly. Heads may roll because we see it as sabotage,”.
The source also explained why the President has refused to sign he said “It is dangerous for the President to sign now and negotiate later. The lawmakers may turn round later to accuse him of non-implementation of the budget and begin the process of removing him from office.”
Some officers being threatened with the sack include the chairmen of the appropriation committees in the Senate and House of Reps, Senator Danjuma Goje and Mr Abdulmumin Jibrin.
A Senate source said both men might be removed from the committees this week over their alleged poor handling of the situation as the leadership of both the Senate and House of Representatives were no longer comfortable with the tension and anxiety that the issue had continued to generate.
“We have reports that both Goje and Jibrin, in most cases, sat and carried out unilateral decisions on the budget and even sometimes invite heads of Ministries, Departments and Agencies for briefings without involving the chairmen of the respected committees in charge of the MDAs.
“Obviously, we in the leadership of the National Assembly are convinced that both Goje and Jibrin have personal issues which they wanted to exhibit through the budget process. People have even drawn our attention to their public statements in recent times.
“First, it was Goje, who condemned the inclusion of N500bn welfare scheme of the All Progressives Congress-led Federal Government in the 2016 budget, describing it as ‘unimplementable’ and therefore called for its suspension till next year.
“We also watched Jibrin on national television this morning (Monday), calling the executive liars, who prepared ‘unimplementable’ budget, yet had the audacity to blame the legislature for their inefficiency.
“We are convinced that the two appropriation heads are on the verge of setting the executive and the legislature on a serious collision course and we would have to stop that before it happens.”
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