Saraki, Dogara visit Buhari in Aso Rock

SENATE President Bukola Saraki and the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, were at the Presidential Villa, Abuja on Tuesday to visit President Muhammadu Buhari.

It was the first time the leadership of the National Assembly would be making such a trip since the arrival last Friday of the president from his nearly two months medical vacation in the United Kingdom.

Both men had similarly met the president while he was convalescing in Abuja House in London.

After the meeting, Saraki told State House correspondents that they were with the president to brief him on what went on during his absence from the country.

“After being away for a while is good for us to meet and generally review things that were done in his absence. So, is normal consultation,” he said.

When Saraki asked if he could, as a medical doctor, assess the physical state of the president and his ability to perform his duties in view of his illness, he said: “I came here to discuss the issues regarding the activities in the National Assembly in his absence. The president met with us and I think we were there for over 40 minutes. I was not talking to myself. “So, you know he was responding and we were engaging and he engaged us very well.

“We discussed issues of national interests. So, we are happy to see him back and he is back at the office and he is doing his work.”

He continued: “Well, the budget is ongoing. Things that we passed in his absence, the issue of the CJN, the Eurobond, just general issues that are pending, the issue of the ambassadorial nominees that is due, the stability in the Niger Delta a whole range of issues  were covered in the short period of time.”

On when the 2017 budget would be passed, he said work on it was ongoing, confident that the deadline for the passage would be met.

“We are working on it and our target is still this month and we are working very hard to ensure we meet that deadline,” he said.

Also speaking, Dogara declined to assess the health condition of the president when asked, saying he was not in the Villa to do so.

“I didn’t come here to assess the president, like the Senate president said, you guys are always here, you know. So, it shouldn’t be me lecturing you, you know better than I do,” he said.

However, he said it was the duty of the legislature to put the executive on its toes in the national interest.

He said: “I have always said this even before Mr. President that in the other climes it is always the province of the legislature to fight the executive. We fight on issues bothering on national interests but we expect to cooperate more than we fight in the interest of our people to ensure that there is progress, one government no division.

“So, it is in the realization of this that we will always extend the needed support to ensure that he succeeds so that our government will be rated as a successful one.”