President Muhammadu Buhari has stated that he rates the Senate President and Speaker of the House very low for holding the budget for seven months.
In a special interview on state-owned NTA, the President said it was justifiable by any standard to hold the budget for seven months.
“I think a culture was developed in the national assembly that they dictate the terms but this is wrong, it is the executive that dictates the terms and takes it before the legislature,” he said in the interview.
Adding that, “They will examine and agree or disagree with it but once they go around posing that they are the government and not the executive then there is a problem,” he said.
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“I spoke personally to the Senate President Bukola Saraki and Speaker Yakubu Dogara. I asked them how do you feel to hold the country to ransom for seven months without passing a budget. I told them that they were not hurting me but they were hurting the country.”
“So really, in terms of patriotism, I think I rate them very, very low indeed,” he added.
Asked if the actions of the national assembly affected the performance of the government, he said, “There is constitution, there are things that have to go through them, there is nothing I can do but to hold a budget for seven months cannot be justified if you really bother about your country.”