The President of the Senate, Bukola Saraki yesterday appealed to Nigerians to refrain from politicising the parliament’s rejection of the $30 billion (N9.61 trillion) foreign loan as part of the external borrowing plan for 2016 to 2018, earlier sought by President Muhammadu Buhari.

He recalled that the Senate last Tuesday described the $29.96 billion borrowing plan as empty, with senators stressing that the National Assembly cannot work with the documents. The lawmakers argued that once the Executive comes up with the needed information, the Senate would commence discussions. The Senate took the position when Senate leader, Senator Ali Ndume (APC, Borno South) drew the attention of the lawmakers to a national newspaper publication of November 2, 2016, where the Senators took a swipe at the Minister of Budget and National Planning, Udoma Udo Udoma, for blaming the National Assembly over the delay in the presentation of the 2017 budget.

The lawmakers had also picked holes in President Buhari’s proposed 2016-2018 Medium Term Expenditure Framework, (MTEF) and Fiscal Strategy Paper (FSP), describing the documents as empty and shallow. The Senate also asked the Executive to stop what it termed playing games and blaming the National Assembly over the issue and supply the necessary documents needed to work on the proposal.
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Meanwhile, Senator Saraki who fielded questions from state house correspondents after joining President Buhari for jumat prayers at the Villa yesterday turned down overtures to shed light on the controversial matter and the seeming soured relationship between the Senate and the Executive.

“I came here to pray, I have finished praying and I just had a general felicitation with the President. It didn’t go beyond that. “We should not look at that as a reflection of the relationship. Don’t let us politicise very important issues. As we said this is work in progress,” he said.