President Muhammadu Buhari met with the leaders of the National Assembly to discuss progress reports on the 2017 budget.
In two separate meetings, closed to the public, President Buhari met with the Yakubu Dogara, Speaker of the House of Representatives, and Bukola Saraki, Senate President, to strengthen relationships between the executive and the legislature, which seemed to have strained in recent times, and to discuss aspects of the 2017 budget proposal.
Saraki described the relationship between the executive and legislative arms as “cordial” and said the meeting with President Buhari was of a routine nature.
“The relationship is very cordial, you cannot examine (the National Assembly) by one or two issues. That is the point I’m making. You cannot examine (the relationship) based on NDDC or examine it based on EFCC.
“We have other issues like the Ministerial (names) we are going to work on and the amnesty we will soon work on. We have the budget that is more important, we have INEC, we have PIB, we have so many things and I think it is a mixture of all that that should guide us.
“So, don’t let us overheat the polity.’’
Dogara dismissed insinuations that his meeting with the President was to restore relationship between the two arms of government they represent, noting that it was blatant rumour that relationship had strained.
“It baffles me when people see you visit Mr President, the assumption out there is that something is going wrong. Nothing is wrong, it is just a routine consultation.
“You might look at it as crisis but I don’t look at it as crisis. You know I have always said this that as a government our value will be the problems we have solved.
“We can’t be remembered for avoiding or running away from problems. It is only when we provide solution to some of the things you refer to as crises and we look at them as opportunities to begin anew that people will now remember us for putting down enduring legacies.”