Saraki, Dogara Meet Buhari …NASS To Meet March Deadline for Budget Passage – Saraki

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By; Sunday Ode, Abuja.
The Senate President, Bukola Saraki and the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara on Tuesday met with President Muhammadu Buhari behind closed-doors in his office at the Presidential Villa Abuja.
The meeting which is their first since Buhari returned from his London medical trip last week, lasted for about forty minutes.
Fielding questions from State House Correspondents after the meeting, Saraki said their visit to the President was to brief him on the activities of the federal legislature while he was away in the UK.
He also restated the commitment of the National Assembly to ensuring that the 2017 budget is passed within the scheduled period of this month end.
Saraki said: “After being away for a while, it’s good for us to meet and generally review things that were done in his absence, so it’s normal consultation.
“Well, the budget is ongoing, 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.
“We are working on it and our target is still this month and we are working very hard to ensure we meet that deadline”.
On whether he felt President Buhari would be fit enough to continue in office, the Senate President said the President was already back in office and doing his work.
“I came here to discus issues regarding the activities in the National Assembly in his absence. The president met with us and I think we were there for over 40 minutes. I was not talking to myself, so you know he was responding and we were engaging and he engaged us very well. We discussed issues of national interests, so we are happy to see him back and he is back at the office and he is doing his work,” Saraki noted.
Also answering correspondents’ questions, Dogara declined to comment on the perceived physical fitness of Buhari, saying that he was not in the State House to assess him.
He said: “I didn’t come here to assess the President. Like the Senate President said, you guys are always here, you know so it shouldn’t be me lecturing you, you know better than I do.”
Hen however said the National Assembly would cooperate more with the executive arm of government in matters of national interest.
“I have always said this even before Mr. President that in other climes, it is always the province of the legislature to fight the executive. We fight on issues bothering on national interests but we are expected to cooperate more than we fight in the interest of our people to ensure that we 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.

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