Enang: Buhari won’t interfere with leadership of 9th n’assembly

President Muhammadu Buhari will have nothing to do with the
election of new leaders of the national assembly, Ita Enang, a
presidential aide, has said.

Enang, who is senior special assistant to Buhari on national
assembly matters (senate), said the president will allow lawmakers
in the ninth assembly do their work without any interference.

The presidential aide said this on Friday while briefing
journalists in Abuja.

Some lawmakers, including Ovie Omo-Agege, senator representing
Delta central and Abdulmumin Jibrin, lawmaker representing
Kiru/Bebeji federal constituency of Kano in the house of reps, had
earlier said the president would determine who will become the next
senate president.

Enang, however, said the president will respect the rule of law
and allow the legislators do their work.

“The principle of President Muhammadu Buhari is that each arm of
government should function according to what the constitution says
which, is that every person in government should do the right
thing,” he said.

“He (Buhari) will not go beyond what the constitution allows him
and every arm of government should stick to its constitutional
responsibilities.”

Enang also urged the incoming lawmakers to facilitate the
passage of bills such as the 2019 budget.

According to him, “the budget of the 64 different federal
government owned agencies are still pending before the national
parliament.

“Unless the budgets of the different agencies are considered and
passed, we still have a lot to lose in terms of opportunities for
employment in those ministries and some capital projects which
would have increased government spending or the spending of the
various agencies and parastatals,” he said.

“The executive is ready with all the system to come in and
defend the budget. We have in advance, worked with the committee on
appropriation to determine a time table for the defence of their
budgets.”