"I rate Saraki and Dogara low" – Buhari

President Muhammadu Buhari has said he rates the Senate President Bukola Saraki and The Speaker of the House, Yakubu Dogara, very low. 

“I told Saraki and Dogara that by holding the budget for 7 months, you’re not hurting me, you’re hurting Nigerians? In terms of patriotism, I rate them very very low,” Buhari said on Monday night.

Speaking in an interview with state TV, Buhari said the national assembly, as led by Saraki and Dogara held Nigeria to ransom for seven months without passing the budget, The Cable reports.

The president said the national assembly wanted to show they were the government and not the executive, and he made his displeasure known about their conduct.

Asked to comment on the delayed budget passage, the President said:

“I think a culture was developed in the National Assembly that they should dictate the terms, which was wrong. It is the executive that dictates the terms and takes it before the legislature. It (the legislature) will examine it and agree or disagree with it.

“But when they go around posing that they are the government and not the executive, then that’s the problem. I felt and I spoke personally to the Senate President, Saraki, and the leader of the House, Dogara. They could not deny it.

Buhari and the leadership of the national assembly have had a long run of disagreement on many issues bothering on national development.