Ebun Francis|
The senator representing Akwa Ibom north-west senatorial district and former minority leader in the national assembly, Godswill Akpabio on Wednesday asked Senate President Bukola Saraki and Yakubu Dogara, speaker of the house of representatives, to resign or be booted out of office.
Akpabio who recently decamped to the ruling All Progressive Congress (APC) from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) made the call following Wednesday’s rowdy session of the joint sitting of the national assembly where the President presented the 2019 budget.
He blamed the two presiding officers for the unruly behavior of PDP lawmakers who booed President Muhammadu Buhari while he presented the 2019 budget.
Akpabio said, “Yes, they couldn’t talk today because they are minority leaders. They are not even supposed to talk in the first place. They should, therefore, do the needful and resign honourably or face being booted out of office,” he said.
But Akpabio described the presentation as a success, stating that it captured all facets of our national life and expectation of Nigerians.
“It was a very good budget presentation. It captures all facets of our national life and expectations of many Nigerians,” he said.
“The good thing about today’s budget presentation is that there is hope that there is going to be what I will call a rejuvenation in terms of infrastructural decay in Nigeria,” he said.
”I believe Nigerians are very proud today that they have a government, they have a president who is very determined to change not just the mental psyche of the Nigerian child but to change the face of infrastructure in the country.
“You would have noticed something about President Buhari quite unlike what happened in the past when we used to have so much of recurrent expenses sometimes up to 70 or 78 per cent.
”There was never a time under the PDP administration that we have more than 23 per cent on capital expenses, but look at the number of capital projects he rolled out today.
”That never happened before and that was why almost all the infrastructure died and we did not even have money for maintenance of infrastructure.”