Senate President, Dr Bukola Saraki has dismissed insinuation in some quarters of a frosty relationship between the executive and legislative arms of government.
Dr. Saraki was speaking to State House correspondents shortly after holding a meeting with the President, following the Friday jumat prayers in the Presidential Villa.
He said that both arms of government are working to move Nigeria forward.
He asked Nigerians not to politicize the Senate’s rejection of the President’s request for foreign borrowing.
“Don’t let us politicize very important issues. As we said, this is work in progress,” he said.
The Senate has explained that it turned down the external borrowing request due to “lack of documents supporting the request as referenced in the letter” from the President.
President Buhari wrote to the National Assembly seeking its approval for an external borrowing of 29.9 billion dollars to ensure the prompt implementation of projects.
The Senate had also accused the Executive of submitting an incomplete Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) and Fiscal Strategy Paper (FSP) to the National Assembly.
The National Assembly is required to pass the MTEF and FSP before working on the 2017 budget.
At Thursday’s legislative proceedings, Senate Leader, Ali Ndume, drew the attention of the lawmakers to a statement credited to the Minister of Budget and National Planning, Mr Udo Udoma, in a newspaper report.
Senator Ndume said that the Minister allegedly stated that the National Assembly was to be blamed for any delay in the presentation of the 2017 budget.
He also claimed that the MTEF, which the Executive submitted to the Senate was empty, adding that it has hindered work on the policy document.
The lawmaker alleged that attempts to get Mr Udoma to submit the necessary documents on the MTEF to the Senate have been unsuccessful.
He also purported that the Minister has not replied the letter or made himself available for scheduled meetings.
