Speaker, Kwara State House of Assembly, Hon. Ali Ahmad, yesterday expressed concern that President Muhammadu Buhari was toying with a possible constitutional crisis over his face-off with the National Assembly on the 2016 Appropriation Bill.

Ahmad, who was Chairman, House Committee on Justice in the Seventh Assembly, noted that instead of the military-era approach being employed by the executive arm of government, President Buhari should promote democratic and constitutional approaches in his dealings with the National Assembly. According to the Speaker, the president should operate within the ambit of the constitution, which also include rapprochement with lawmakers.

Ahmad, however, insisted that rather than refusing to assent the budget sent to him by the legislature, the president was expected to sign it and return to the lawmakers with a supplementary bill to cover areas he felt were excluded from the initial bill.

Ahmad also chided the president for alleged delay in signing the 2016 budget, saying it would now take another two to three months to get the budget passed. His words: "What we are saying is that he should operate within the ambit of the Constitution.

If you have a president who does not want to interact with the National Assembly, how can he go ahead? All the state governors have this problem, but because they know how they interact with their legislators, it is resolved. Instead of you to interact, you now went to newspapers to call out that the projects are not in the budget proposal.

"Even if it were, Section 81 says, sign it and then go back to make supplementary budget. You can see as they go about as if it is military regime. For God's sake, this is a constitutional government. The first thing to ask in a constitutional government is to ask what the constitution says.

And Section 81 has cleared it. "He should discontinue that approach because every day that the ministry works, it draws money from the federation account and that is unconstitutional. And he is the only one responsible for that. His Attorney-General and Vice President should tell him.

He is exposing himself for choosing to operate outside the constitution. "What the president was saying is that some projects were excluded or that allocated finances of some projects were reduced and this has been stated in Section 81, subsection 4a and 4b.

Indeed, it is for the President to bring Supplementary Appropriation Bill to the National Assembly. That is what he should have done." "Now, the budget would be made to pass through stages of reading. The constitution knows that this can happen, and it states that when it happens, the President signs it and opts for supplementary.