Reps may reconvene before December 3

Members of the House of Representatives, who are currently on a controversial recess, may be forced to shelve its December 3 adjourned date to reconvene for President Goodluck Jonathan’s presentation of the 2015 Appropriation Bill to the National Assembly before next month. It would be recalled that the delay that arose from the 2014 budget were the discrepancies in the oil benchmark. Speaking with Nigerian Pilot yesterday, the House Deputy Majority Leader, Hon. Leo Ogor, hinted that the presentation of the 2015 Budget by the President may require the Lower Chamber to reconvene before December 3. Ogor said though the budget had not been submitted to the Senate, he admitted that the recess could delay its presentation. The lawmaker emphasised that as soon as they got wind that the President is set to submit the budget before the resumption date, the principal officers and their political parties could meet and take a decision on the matter. Ogor pointed out that the budget was not a document that could be kept waiting. “The Appropriation Bill for 2015 may require the House to reconvene early. We believe that since the Appropriation Bill has not been submitted to the Senate, it is another contentious subject matter. As soon as we get notice that the President is about to submit it and if, for any reason, he has to submit it before we resume, because it is an issue of national importance, the principal officers and political parties may need to look into it. “On the basis of that, if we agree collectively, in conjunction with the Speaker and the Deputy Speaker, we can reconvene and take the Appropriation Bill. It is not a document that will be kept waiting,” he explained. A reliable source at the National Assembly, told our correspondent that the Appropriation Bill might come earlier as a way of addressing the perennial late passage of the budget. He stated that the House would have no choice but to suspend its recess if the 2015 Budget was ready for presentation before December 3. Speaker of the House of Representatives, Aminu Tambuwal, had on Tuesday, October 27, 2014 announced his defection to the All Progressives Congress, APC from the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP while the House adjourned sitting till December 3, 2014. Tambuwal had announced his defection shortly after the House Leader, Mulikat Akande-Adeola (PDP-Oyo), moved a motion for the House to adjourn sitting till December 3. His action had generated a lot of controversy with the PDP demanding his resignation and prevailing on its lawmakers to reconvene the House without further delay. Nigerian Pilot recalls that on December 19, 2013, the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, presented the 2014 Budget estimate of N4.6trillion to the National Assembly before the lawmakers went on their Christmas break -