The
consideration of the 2018 budget suffered a setback at the Senate on Thursday
as the lawmakers failed to pass the 2018-2020 Medium Term Expenditure
Framework,
MTEF, and Fiscal Strategy Paper.
The Senate
suspended the consideration of the report of its joint committee on Finance,
Appropriations and National Planning and Economic Affairs due to the absence of
John Enoh, Cross River-PDP, who was to present the report.
The Senate
on had Wednesday stood down the consideration of the documents due to the
scanty number of Senators in attendance as at the time it was supposed to be
considered.
President
Muhammadu Buhari sent the 2018-2020 MTEF and FSP to the Senate on October 19.
The document
was which must be passed before consideration of the 2018 appropriation was
sent to the joint committee to work on and report back to the full house.
However, the
Senate was forced to suspend the consideration on Thursday due to the absence
of Mr. Enoh who is currently at the ongoing Organisation of Petroleum Exporting
Countries’ meeting convened to determine the cap oil output from Nigeria.
Announcing
Enoh’s absence, Senate Leader Ahmed Lawan asked senators to be patient so as to
take an informed decision on the passage of the documents.
“We need to
know what the production quota for Nigeria will be so that we’ll take a very
informed and enlightened decision on the daily production for our crude,” he
said. “I believe that this is a strong and enough ground for us to stand down
the consideration of this report until next Tuesday.”
Deputy
Senate President Ike Ekweremadu who presided over the sitting also emphasised
the need to wait for the outcome of the meeting before going ahead with the
passage of MTEF, FSP.
The
lawmakers unanimously adopted the prayer.
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