For the second time in five days, President Muhammadu Buhari yesterday had a meeting with Senate President Bukola Saraki at the Abuja House in London.
The second meeting between the duo was confirmed in a tweet on the president’s twitter handle, @NGRPresident.
“This evening President @MBuhari met with Senate President @bukolasaraki, at Abuja House”, the tweet stated.
An official in the Senate president’s office also confirmed to LEADERSHIP late yesterday night that his boss met with President Buhari in London yesterday evening.
Details of the meeting were however not disclosed.
Yesterday’s meeting comes exactly five days after Saraki led a delegation of principal officers of the National Assembly, including Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara and Senate Leader, Ahmed Lawan to meet with the president in London.
They were said to have deliberated on matters of mutual interests between the executive and the legislature, even as the National Assembly leaders used the opportunity to personally pray for President Buhari and wish him quick return to Nigeria.
The Senate president, in a statement after last Wednesday’s visit to the president, said he and members of his delegation were delighted to see that President Buhari was doing well, was cheerful and in good spirits.
“The president I saw today is healthy, witty and himself. The president’s absence and imminent return shows that there is no vacuum in government and our system of democracy is working with all organs of government fulfilling their mandate. And let me use the time tested cliché, there is no cause for alarm!”Saraki had stated.
Meanwhile, the Senate will on Tuesday resume regular plenary sittings to resume work on several legislations tagged ‘economic priority bills’ that are currently at different stages of consideration in the Red Chamber.
The economic reform bills to be considered form the basis of the Senate’s priority economic agenda and two of them – the Independent Warehouse Regulatory Agency Act and the Company and Allied Matters Act (CAMA) – would be attended to during plenary sessions within this week, barring any last-minute change of plan.
Also, on the first day of resumption, the Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki, will traditionally read two pending letters from President Muhammadu Buhari on the extension of his holiday in London and the nomination of Justice Walter Onoghen as the substantive Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN) respectively.
The Red Chamber will also continue work on the proposed 2017 Budget.
LEADERSHIP recalls that the Senate had on Thursday, January 26, 2017, announced the suspension of plenary for three weeks in order for its standing committees to scrutinise the 2017 Appropriation Bill at the budget defence exercise with ministries, departments and agencies of government (MDAs).
Also within the period of the partial recess, for the first time in the history of the Nigerian parliament, the Senate and the House of Representatives’ Appropriation Committees held a joint three-day public hearing on the 2017 budget.
In a statement issued yesterday by the chairman, Senate Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Senator Aliyu Sabi Abdullahi, the Senate President was quoted as saying that the historic joint public hearing was a huge success.
“By all accounts the public hearing event was an outstanding success. Federal ministers, private sector leaders, civil society organisations and others all participated in what I like to call the ‘people’s budget’ process”, Saraki said.
He noted that, while government officials were on hand to defend their budget proposals and answer questions, CSO’s, academics and professionals associations offered commentary on their views and critique of the budget.
“It is the intention for the public hearing exercise to be institutionalised as a yearly exercise to promote government transparency and greater public participation in the process”, Saraki added.
According to the statement by the Senate spokesman, various standing committees are expected to start submitting their reports to the committee on appropriations from today based on the schedule earlier provided as a result of the conclusion of budget defence exercise by MDAs.
“This will be followed by compilation of the reports by the Appropriation Committee and engagement with the leadership of the Senate and interface with some committee where necessary. The last stage of the budget process will be laying of report at plenary by the Appropriation Committee as well as the consideration and passage of the Appropriation Bill”. Senator Sabi said.