It was a strange scene on Wednesday as boos, jeers and cheers filled the atmosphere of the House of Representatives Chambers while President Muhammadu Buhari was addressing the joint session of the National Assembly on the proposed 2019 budget.

The drama started when the President was intermittently interrupted by protesting lawmakers while he was listing the achievements of his administration on the 2018 budget.

As he mentioned each achievement, the protesting lawmakers shouted, ‘No!’,  ‘Campaign Propaganda,’  ‘Lie’. While lawmakers opposed to Buhari jeered , some of the All Progressives Congress  lawmakers cheered and hailed the President apparently to shore up his confidence and prove to the world that he has the support of some of the lawmakers .

When the President said, “We have weathered the storms and made progress on every front”, opposing legislators screamed ‘Nooooo!’ and ‘Uuuuuuu!’  They screamed yet again when he said that Nigeria’s economy had recovered well from  recession.

After appealing to the lawmakers to behave themselves as the outside world was watching the live budget presentation, President Buhari was yet again interrupted when he said his administration had made success in its fight against corruption.

At this point, one of the protesting lawmakers shouted ‘Grasscutter!’, in obvious reference to the Presidential Initiative on the North-East (PINE) scandal which led to the dismissal of the former Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Babachir Lawal.

The session witnessed a temporary moment of calm as Buhari reeled out the details of the 2019 budget proposal but as soon as he concluded his speech, the session turned rowdy again.

While the APC lawmakers screamed ‘Four more years!’, their PDP counterparts responded with chants of ‘No more years!’. The commotion prevented Senate President, Bukola Saraki and the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara from making their closing remarks. 

About 10 minutes into the drama, the Presidential Guards Brigade began to  play the National Anthem to mark the end of the ceremony even while the President was still on his seat.

After the anthem which was cheerfully sung by  all the lawmakers, security operatives  formed a human ring of protection around  President Buhari and whisked him out of the chamber while Saraki later led  senators out .