Why N/Assembly members booed Buhari – Ebute, ex-Senate President 

Aidoghie Paulinus, Abuja

Third Republic Senate President, Senator Ameh Ebute, has said that members of the National Assembly who booed President Muhammadu Buhari during the 2019 budget presentation carried out the action because of constituency projects.

Ebute specifically said that lawmakers’ action might have been caused by the of failure to the president to allow the them to dip their hands into the national treasury.

He said booing a president was unprecedented in  history of democracy in the country.

He expressed dissatisfaction over the incident, insisting that the lawmakers’ action did not demonstrate mature conduct of people who were supposed to be members of the National Assembly: Senators and honourable members.

Ebute said the concerned lawmakers thought that they wanted to disgrace the president when in actual fact, they ended up disgracing themselves.

“I think people will interpret their action as the refusal of Mr President to allow them loot the national treasury in the name of constituency projects.

“The president being a symbol of authority of the country, any disgrace on him is a disgrace on the entire nation. So, the disgrace is not for President Muhammadu Buhari. It is a disgrace on the entire nation whom they claim to be representing.”

Ebute further said the action of the lawmakers should be condemned irrespective of the performance of the president.

According to Ebute, “the president, irrespective of any performance, represents the dignity of the nation.

“If he has performed much below expectations or committed any breach of the Constitution, they should have been able to muster enough support to impeach him rather than denigrate themselves, thinking they were denigrating Mr President. They disgraced themselves and the entire nation. It has never happened before.”

Ebute regretted that the lawmakers took party loyalty too far by the commotion caused during the budget presentation.

Asked about his assessment of the budget, the Benue-State-born Ebute said he was yet to get the details of the proposal.