The president of the Nigerian Senate, Bukola Saraki, and the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, stated that they visited President Muhammadu Buhari, following his return, to discuss burning national issues.
In a swift reaction to Buhari’s resumption of official duties on Monday, the leaders of the National Assembly met with him at the presidential villa for 40 minutes Tuesday afternoon, PT writes.
Saraki told state house correspondents that the president “engaged them very well” on issues that centered around the “activities of the National Assembly during the absence of the president”.
Adding that the upper legislative chamber had a target of passing the 2017 budget this month, Saraki said the meeting covered the “budget, the economy, CBN, Euro bond, the issue of the ambassadorial list, the stability in the Niger Delta, and a whole range of issues”.
On the president’s state of health and suitability to continue in office, Dr Saraki said the president was doing fine.
“I was not talking to myself. He is doing very well, we discussed issues of national interest”.
Dogara, meanwhile, said they weren’t at the villa to assess his health, choosing rather to dwell on the relationship between the executive and legislature.
“There is one government and no division. If he fails, we all fail, so it is in realisation of this that we always extend the needed support to ensure that he succeeds, so that the government will be rated as a success,” he said.
After the embarrassing budget padding scandal of 2016, the relationship between the executive and legislature has improved, although this will be tested as the National Assembly deliberates on the 2017 appropriation bill.
