President Muhammadu Buhari has allegedly employed former Senate President Ken Nnamani and one-time Speaker of the House of Representatives and Katsina State Governor Aminu Bello Masari to assist in resolving the crisis.
According to The Nation, both Nnamani and Masari said the president was right not to have signed the budget since key projects were removed by the Senate.
“Budget is an area where we practise what we call co-management between the National Assembly and the executive branch of government; both of them co-manage the economy through the budget. It’s a peculiar area; both of them will have to cooperate and collaborate for a proper budget to be passed and once it is passed, it becomes law.
“So, as it stands today, the situation is such that the National Assembly has to do what is called introspection. How did we get to where we are now? The year is running out and we are still talking about 2016 budget; where is the fault from?
“Wherever it is coming from, both the executive and the legislature must find a quick solution to it. It does nobody good to drag it any longer. Remember it is an area of co-management; it is not left to the executive alone, it is not left to the National Assembly alone, there has to be collaboration.
“I think it stands to reason, what I suggested is being studied, I think it is appropriate,” Nnamani was quoted.
On his part, Mr Masari said “I said it before and I am saying it again, there was a time Katsina State was entirely dependent on its natural resources. Those resources are still there and I believe that we are sensitising the general public and the world to know that there are lots of opportunities in Katsina and in Kastina, with proper investment, we believe we can make it; we believe we can survive on the natural resources and agriculture and other resources that abound in Nigeria.
“So that is why we have tagged this “Economic and Development Summit” but also we are refocusing to encourage our own local investors, those who have N100,000 to invest can make more money than leaving the money in the bank.
“Essentially, our focus will be on agriculture and agriculture of selected crops and we are focusing on the natural ginger,
“We are focusing on the area of irrigated agriculture in the area of rice, cotton and other crops. We also have gold and diamond in Katsina but what we can lay our hands now is in the area of agriculture.” He concluded.