President of the Senate, Godswill Akpabio has said the National Assembly under his watch was determined to draw a battle line with heads of Ministries, Department and Agencies (MDAs) who ignore summons and invitations of its Committees.
Akpabio issued the threat on Thursday while speaking at the public hearing on the 2024-2026 Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) and Fiscal Strategy Paper (FSP) at the Senate.
The public hearing was organised by the Senate Joint Committees on Finance; Appropriations; National Planning and Economic Affairs, Local and Foreign Debt to examine critically the fiscal document with the chief executive officers of federal government revenue earning agencies with the objective of increasing the nation’s revenue base.
Once approved, the MTEF/FSP will form the parameters for the 2024 Budget.
Akpabio said the interactive session on the MTEF/FSP was a very important session and any serious presidential appointee that wanted President Tinubu to succeed must be present.
Akpabio maintained that the interactive session with Heads of MDAs was strategic. He told the gathering of Senators and some of the Chief Executive Officers of the revenue generating officers present and newsmen that he refused to join the All Progressives Congress (APC) leaders in Owerri, Imo State for its grand finale rally held on Thursday ahead of Saturday election, to attend the session with MDAs.
He revealed that his leadership would convey its disaffection to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu on any head of federal agency who refused to appear before the Senate joint Committees
He said: “Any serious appointee or any head of any agency that is interested in the success of President Bola Tinubu’s administration ought to be here.
“Chairman should give me the list of all the heads of agencies that you invited who have failed to show up in this session.
“This is the beginning of their failure in their various offices. Therefore, I am happy to see the chairman of FIRS, he is here. I have also seen the DG NIMASA and others.
“Any head of agency that sends representation here is not a serious person and therefore the President must take a second look at such a person’s appointment, it is not a threat but the truth.
“I shelved even my appointment to appear in Owerri today for our final rally of my party and all other schedules that I have, to make sure that I appear so that we can strategise on how we can succeed.”
In the MTEF/FSP, submitted to the National Assembly, the federal government pegged the price of crude oil at $73.96; exchange rate at N700/$; oil production at 1.78 million barrels per day; debt service of N8. 25 trillion; inflation at 21 per cent and GDP growth at 3.76 percent.
The aggregate expenditure is estimated at N26.01 trillion for the 2024 budget, which includes statutory transfers of N1.3 trillion, non debt recurrent expenditure of N10.26 trillion, debt service estimated at N8.25 trillion, as well as N7.78 trillion being provided for personnel and pension cost.
