Tobias Sylvester
President Muhammadu Buhari has accused Senate President Bukola Saraki and Speaker Yakubu Dogara of holding the country at ransom for seven months without passing a budget.
Buhari who spoke during a TV interview Monday night said the two presiding officers of the two chambers of the National Assembly held the nation to ransom by delaying the budget for seven months.
“To hold a budget for seven months cannot be justified if you really bother about the country,” the President said.
He said that he once asked the two presiding officers how they felt delaying the budget for that long.
“I think a culture was developed in the National Assembly that they should dictate the terms, which was wrong. It is the executive that dictates the terms and takes it before the legislature. It (the legislature) will examine it and agree or disagree with it.
“But when they go around posing that they are the government and not the executive, then that’s the problem. I felt and I spoke personally to the Senate President, Saraki, and the leader of the House, Dogara. They could not deny it.
“I asked them how they felt to hold the country at ransom for seven months without passing a budget. Unfortunately, they were not hurting me; they were hurting the country. So, really, in terms of patriotism, I think I will rate them very low indeed,” he said.
