The Presidency says that President Muhammadu Buhari will only
assent to the 2016 Appropriation Bill recently passed by the National
Assbuhariembly when the details are presented.
Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity,
Malam Garba Shehu, who made this known in an interview, said “Yes, the
National Assembly has passed the budget and sent the bill to the
President but the details did not come with the bill. Of course, the
President cannot sign something without seeing the details. The normal
practice is that the details would have accompanied the bill. When the
President presented the Appropriation bill it was accompanied by the
details.”
He continued that the presidency expects that in less than a week,
the legislature should be able to conclude whatever work they are doing
on the details, and convey it to the president for assent.
Speaking on the decision to join the Saudi Arabia-backed Islamic
anti-terrorist coalition which has generated a lot of criticisms, Garba
said President Buhari needs the support he has gotten from religious
leaders in the country, be they Muslims or Christians, and that nobody
can take that for granted.
He explained that the president went into the Islamic alliance against terror and for the national interest.
“Culturally speaking, we have a proverb which says that your enemy’s
enemy is your friend. So logically speaking, whoever is fighting terror
in the world should be your friend. We don’t have to look at their
background. “The President, earlier in the administration, went to the G-7 which,
with due respect, is not a coalition of Islamic countries. In terms of
religion they are majorly Christians. The G-7 does not comprise black
people like us, they are majorly whites, but because they want to assist
Nigeria to achieve its objectives, he went there and placed his cards
on the table seeking for help. He went to the United States of America
and without looking at ideological or religious orientation, he said, I
need your help.
“So, isn’t it curious that the Muslim countries are the ones who
suffer the worst terrorism? Look at Syria now, they have an
understanding of the so-called Islamic terror, perhaps more than those
who have already offered to help us. They want to sit down with us and
share intelligence, may be give us weapons to help fight terrorism and
more than any other thing, to even help us rebuild the Northeast”, he
said.
According to him, “Whether the Chibok girls are brought home by
Christians or Muslims does not matter to the parents. All they want is;
Can I have my daughter back? That is the vision that the President has”.
On suggestions that such a coalition is a prelude to Nigeria assuming
full membership of the OIC, Garba stated that “Nigeria is already a
member of the OIC but the membership has not altered Nigeria’s diversity
in terms of religion and so on. In fact, the OIC, which is much
distrusted by people who don’t have the larger view of things, is a
positive force in terms of moderation when it comes to the sharing,
creation of knowledge and awareness or the practice of Islam.” According to him, “If Nigerians are fair as we have always been, with
more accommodation towards the OIC, there would be a lot of benefits
that we can even gain”.
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