Buhari presents 2019 Budget Estimates to the National Assembly amid cheers and jeers by Members
• The substance of today’s proceeding at Nigeria’s National Assembly was to be the presentation of budget appropriation bill by President Muhammadu Buhari to a joint session of the Assembly. Senators usually move to the more spacious House of Representatives chamber for the annual ‘ritual’. However, today’s occasion was full of dramas, mainly political dramas. Reports said that some members had come to the special session with all manners of placards, most of them allegedly meant to embarrass the President. Yakubu Dogara, the Speaker of the House of Representatives was said to have addressed members where he admonished those of them with placards to shelve them. On the arrival of the President to the joint session, a loud ovation greeted him. While those who were hailing him were singing “four more years” the ones who loathed him were replied, “no more years”. The budget speech itself was truncated many times by cheers, jeers and boos. However, an unruffled President Buhari chided the rancorous National Assembly members to comport themselves as the world was watching them on live television. After the President’s speech, the President of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Assembly were supposed to make brief statements in accordance with parliamentary tradition on such occasion. However, the rowdiness in the Assembly was uncontrollable and the President had to be abruptly moved out of the venue before matters got out of hand. The sudden burst of the National Anthem just before he left put paid to any possibility of the Senate President and the Speaker of the House of Representatives making their speeches. A major highlight of the event was the opportunity the budget presentation afforded President Buhari to reel out his achievements in office over the last three and a half years. He received applause at intervals but the shout of ‘noo’ by those who would not accept the claims he was making about those achievements. Meanwhile, National Assembly workers who had embarked on a strike action stayed away from the premises of the Assembly.
Nigerian Government presents 2019 Budget Estimate of N8.83 trillion to the National Assembly
• President Muhammadu Buhari today laid the 2019 budget plan before the National Assembly in Abuja. The President told Senators and House of Representatives members that the Federal Government proposed to spend N8.83 trillion during the fiscal year. The amount is N300 billion short of the 2018 estimate which was N9.1 trillion. He said that 50.31 percent of the total 2019 budget has been earmarked for recurrent expenditure while 22.03 percent will be expended on capital projects. The rest will be for statutory transfers, debt servicing and sinking funds.
Air Marshal killed by unknown Assailants
• Sympathizers all over the country have been mourning the death of Air Chief Marshal Alex Badeh who was yesterday fatally shot by unknown gunmen as he was returning home from his farm along Abuja-Keffi Road. He was the 15th Chief of Defence Staff. His tenure was during the administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan. Public Relations Officer of the Nigerian Air Force, Air Commodore Ibikunle Daramola twitted, “It is with a heavy heart that I regretfully announce the unfortunate demise of former Chief of Defence Staff, Air Chief Marshal Alex Badeh who died today, December 18, 2018 from gunshot wounds sustained when his vehicle was attacked while returning from his farm along Abuja-Keffi Road.” The late top military officer was born in 1957 in a modest town in Mubi Local Government of Adamawa State, North-east of Nigeria. He was a professional pilot who was Commander of the Presidential Fleet during the regime of Olusegun Obasanjo, a retired General in the Nigerian Army who was elected the first civilian President of Nigeria in 1999. Badeh was standing trial for corruption and was supposed to begin his defence in the trial early next year. Meanwhile President Muhammadu Buhari had sent condolence message to members of his family. He has also directed law enforcement agencies to find the killers of the retired officer.
Saraki turns 56 today
• President of the Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki is 56. His political associates and well-wishers across the country have been sending birthday messages to him. Bukola, a medical doctor by training is the first son of the renowned political figure, Dr. Olusola Saraki who loomed large in the politics of Kwara State in particular and Nigeria to a large extent.
