Senate President Bukola Saraki on Tuesday said the legislature is working to ensure the passage of the 2017 budget by the end of the month.
Saraki stated this after a closed-door meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari and the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara.
“We are working on it and our target is still this month and we are working very hard to ensure we meet that deadline,” he told journalists at the State House Abuja.
He said they came to brief the President on the activities of both chambers of the National Assembly in his absence. According to him, they briefed “things that we passed in his absence, the issue of the CJN, the Eurobond, just general issues that are pending, the issue of the ambassadorial nominees that is due, the stability in the Niger Delta a whole range of issues were covered in the short period of time”.
The record 7.298trillion naira budget which was presented by President Buhari to the National Assembly in December last year is currently being debated by the lawmakers.
Meanwhile, Dogara told journalists that they had not come to access the President’s health as everyone can see that he is doing well, but to discuss issues that will move the country forward.
Responding to questions from newsmen on the relationship between the executive and the legislature going forward, the Speaker of the House of Representatives said the government is one and if the President fails, everyone fails.
“I have always said this even before Mr. President that in the other climes it is always the province of the legislature to fight the executive, we fight on issues bothering on national interests but we expect to cooperate more than we fight in the interest of our people to ensure that there is progress, one government no division. So it is in the realization of this that we will always extend the needed support to ensure that he succeeds so that our government will be rated as a successful one” he said
