Speaker, House of Representatives, Aminu Tambuwal

Some members of the House of Representatives on Thursday denied that the National Assembly had abandoned the 2015 budget to focus on electioneering ahead of next month’s general elections.

Findings by The PUNCH had indicated that committees of the Senate and the House had not started serious work on the budget over two weeks after the document was referred to them by their respective chambers.

The committees had a mandate of the chambers to summon ministries, departments and agencies to defend their proposals in this year’s budget.

The development signalled a potential delay in the passage of the N4.3tn budget, which passed the second reading on January 14.

The plenary of the two chambers had been shut and will remain closed till February 17, about three days after the presidential and the National Assembly elections.

But some House members protested on Thursday, saying that it was wrong to have portrayed all lawmakers as persons who had abdicated their duties.

One of them, Mr. Sekonte Davies, an All Progressives Congress member from Rivers State, told The PUNCHthat two committees, on which he served, had held budget defence sessions.

Davies, who is the Deputy Chairman, House Committee on Land and Transport, mentioned the Committee on Information and the Committee on Foreign Affairs as having held budget defence sessions.

He said, “It is not correct to say no committee at all has held a meeting on the budget.

“If you say most of the committees, okay, but not to say no committee. I am a member of the Committee on Foreign Affairs. We have concluded our defence. I am also on the Committee on Information. I know that these two committees have held sessions.”

However, he was silent on whether his own committee, which supervises the critical land transport sector including the railways, had held defence sessions with its relevant MDAs.

But investigations by The PUNCH on Thursday revealed that only a few number of committees held what a National Assembly official described as “funding budget discussions” in the last one week.

The sessions were also largely held in secret as the media were shut out by the committees.

For example, part of the meeting of the Committee on Information, which Davies referred to, was held behind closed doors.

The Chairman of the committee, Mr. Buba Jibrin, pointedly asked journalists to leave the venue as the secret session was about to start.

He stated, “One of the issues we have identified as challenging in this budget defence is the fact that there is no provision for capital allocation. The issue of zero capital allocation is quite worrisome that we have to ask the press to please wait outside as we interact with the agencies on why that is the case.

“When we have established the problems, we can then call on you to join us.”

But hours later after the session, Jibrin merely parried the questions of journalists on deliberations at the meeting.

Another of such secret meetings was held on Thursday by the House Committee on Power.

The committee, which is presided over by a Peoples Democratic Party member from Edo State, Mr. Patrick Ikariale, met with the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Power, Mr. Godknows Igali, and some MDAs for over three hours at the National Assembly.

The details of the closed-door meeting were not known, as Ikariale wound down the session and hurriedly left the venue through a door not accessible to journalists.

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