PDP lawmakers kick as Reps considers MTEF

The House of Representatives yesterday commenced consideration of the 2018-2020 Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) and Fiscal Strategy Paper (FSP).

The consideration followed the House resolution to rescind its decision in which it earlier referred the documents to its relevant committees without debate at the time.

However, the consideration was almost thwarted by members of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the House, who argued that there was no point to debate the documents because that would amount to illegality.

Daily Trust recalls that President Muhammadu Buhari had on November 7 presented the 2018 budget proposal of N8.6 trillion to a joint session of the National Assembly.

The MTEF and FSP documents, which contained the country’s budgets for three years, were presented to the federal legislature on October 16, ahead of the budget presentation.

At the beginning of the debate yesterday, a PDP member from Rivers State, Betty Apiafi, led the opposition against consideration of the documents.

She said there was no way the House could debate and consider the MTEF at this time when the 2018 budget had already been laid on the floor, saying the consideration should have come before the budget presentation.

One after the other, some of her colleagues from the PDP supported the argument, calling on the House to halt the debate.

PDP members such as Minority Whip, Yakubu Barde (Kaduna) Samson Okwu (Benue) Daniel Reyieneju (Delta) Dan Asuquo (C/River) and Nnenna Elendu-Ukeje (Abia) were all against the consideration.

Apiafi argued that the MTEF and the budget were not in agreement and that there may be a lot of changes to be made in the budget.

“If we do that tomorrow, we shouldn’t be accused of budget padding. The budget we have is not based on the MTEF and Nigerians should be aware,” she said.

But House Leader, Femi Gbajabiamila, while appealing to the PDP lawmakers to allow the documents be referred to relevant committees for consideration, said the House should put the country first before any other sentiment.

Also, Deputy Speaker Yussuf Suleimon Lasun, who presided over the plenary, followed appealed to the PDP members.