Presidency Begs Senate To Suspend Recess

The Presidency has appealed to the National Assembly to suspend its ongoing recess to enable the lawmakers attend to “very urgent” requests by President Muhammadu Buhari pending before them.

The appeal was disclosed by Senator Ita Enang, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on National Assembly Matters (Senate), while addressing newsmen, on Thursday, in Abuja.

The Senate on Tuesday embarked on two months recess following alleged clampdown on President of the Senate, Bukola Saraki and the Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu.

Before the lawmakers proceeded on the break, President Buhari sent a supplementary budget to the National Assembly for consideration.

He presented a N228 billion supplementary budget to fund the Independent National Electoral Commission and security agencies for the conduct of the 2019 general elections.

The President specifically asked the legislature to re-allocate part of the N578bn voted to the projects inserted by the lawmakers into the 2018 Appropriation Act.

Enang appealed to the lawmakers to reconvene and approve Buhari’s requests, adding that delaying the approvals would frustrate some organs of the government.

“The executive – President and ministers – will keep working with the legislature with respect due their offices and persons, and keep working with them as legislators of the Federal Republic of Nigeria who make laws for the executive to execute irrespective of their individual political decisions while leaving all options open for conciliation,” he said.

“We will be praying the legislature – the leadership and membership – to consider that there are many matters of very urgent nature which are pending before the legislature and unless (they are) considered, the functioning of certain institutions of the government will be hampered.

“If you recall, a lot of the funding for the 2018 budget was budgeted to come from some external sources. The request for approval to raise funds from these external sources is before the legislature and unless (it is) considered, it may hamper the level of implementation. Again, before the legislature proceeded on vacation, Mr President also laid before them the request for virement, this also will be affected.”