The newly inaugurated 9th national assembly has promised to pass the nation’s budget within three months of its presentation by the executive.
Appropriation bills presented to the past legislative arm of government used to be delayed in being passed largely because of lackadaisical attitude of some various agencies of the executive to defend their budget before the legislature.
Efforts to achieve the January to December budget implementation was also not possible due to late presentation by President Muhammadu Buhari who only presented the budget early once since his administration came in.
Last year, the Nigerian leader presented this year’s budget on December 19, 2018 and this could not enable early passage before Christmas break because it will take the lawmakers a duration not less than 3 months to work on the bill.
With the emergence of Ahmed Lawan as the new President of the 9th Senate, the top lawmaker has vowed to ensure the budget is passed early.
Mr Lawan said the January to December budget circle will be achieved only if the executive headed by Mr Buhari presents the budget to the national assembly on time.
“Well, this is a crucial thing that worries everyone, every Nigerian wants to see the national assembly pass the budget in good time and what we have in mind we’ve campaigned with that and it’s something both of us in the national assembly have bought into – that we’ll pass the budget within three months by the grace of God,” the lawmaker told State House Correspondents after the weekly Friday’s Juma’at prayer at the Aso Rock mosque, Abuja.
“But I want to say here that it takes two sides of government to pass the budget in good time. I am sure that the executive side of the government would like to present the budget before the national assembly in good time – in September or early October.
“By the grace of God, we in the national assembly will ensure that we carry out the budget defence and do the remaining parts of the processes and before we leave for Christmas break, the budget would have been passed and Mr President would have the budget before him to assent,” he added.
The Senate President said the national assembly under his leadership is in a hurry and thirsty to perform and will support the president in his efforts to transform the nation’s economy for the benefit of all citizens.
