Vice President Yemi Osinbajo yesterday presided over the emergency meeting of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) to scrutinise the 2016 budget details forwarded to the Presidency by the National Assembly on Thursday.
President
Muhammadu Buhari who had earlier summoned the meeting was however conspicuosly
absent.
No
official reason was given for the president’s nonappearance at the FEC meeting.
The President’s Media Adviser, Femi Adesina declined to comment on the Buhari’s
absence last night.
A
presidency source that he could not fathom why Buhari did not attend the
meeting. “He (Buhari) summoned the meeting and then, he was nowhere to be
found. It looks a bit funny,” said the source.
Many
Nigerians were surprised by the president’s nonattendance at the critical FEC
meeting; members of the FEC made up of the 36 ministers, the Vice President and
the Secretary to the State Government, SGF were indeed also surprised.
All
the FEC members arrived early for the meeting fixed for 11am.
While
exchanging pleasantries amongst themselves, they were interrupted by a clap of
hand, a sign to signal them of the president’s arrival to the meeting.
But
there was no sign of the president in the room. It was the SGF, Mr. David
Babachir who verbally called the meeting to order while Vice President Osinabjo
called for opening prayers.
At
this point, Journalists were excused from the meeting and the meeting
eventually kicked off without Buhari while Osinbajo took charge.
Thereafter,
the vice president, ministers and some permanent secretaries began the critical
examination of the document.
Addressing
State House correspondents after the meeting, the Minister of Information, Lai
Mohammed said: “We have received the details of the 2016 budget from the
National Assembly yesterday and an extra-ordinary Federal Executive Council
meeting was called this morning to avail every minister to look at the details
of the budget and see how it affects each of the ministries.
“And
also at this point, it is still work in progress, we have broken up to resume
later in the afternoon. We will come out with a statement later.”
The
president had insisted on seeing the details of the budget before he could
append his signature to the 2016 Appropriation Bill.
While
he submitted a total of N6.08 trillion as the budget estimates, the National
Assembly pruned it down to N6.06 amid allegations of padding.
It
was yet unknown whether FEC would recommend the signing of the document into
law after the meeting as the president is believed to be leaving for China next
week.
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