Reps and senators review Tinubu’s N27.5 trillion budget in vague terms

The Senate started debating the plans yesterday even though it did not yet have all the information necessary to quickly adopt the N27.5 trillion budget for the 2024 fiscal year before the year ends.

Presenting the estimates to the joint session of the National Assembly on Wednesday, President Bola Tinubu requested that the paper be passed by the MPs within a 30-day period.

When President Tinubu submitted the budget, it was approved on its first reading in both chambers of parliament.

The Red Chamber started debating the main ideas of the proposals one day after the president’s speech without receiving the breakdown of the estimates, including the allotments to various sectors.

Prior to the start of the debate, our correspondent noticed that the Senate Leader, Michael Opeyemi Bamidele, had only given copies of his budget address and lead debate to the senators.

This was different from prior budget discussions in the legislature, where the members were sent a breakdown of the budget estimates and then gathered in plenary to discuss the basic ideas of the document after reviewing it.

After receiving the information, Senator Kawu Sumaila (Kano) advised his colleagues to put off discussing the budget until later.

“We are representing interests here,” he declared. Where are the specifics of the budget? The bill must be here. Regarding the sectoral allocations and what our constituents will receive, we are completely ignorant. The parliament is a really odd place.

Additionally, Senator Mohammed Ogoshi Onawo (Nasarawa) stated that the president’s presentation of the budget on Wednesday provided all the details of the plans, meaning parliamentarians’ contributions to the budget would be restricted.

Adamawa senator Binos Dauda Yaroe also issued a warning against hurrying the budget debate, pointing out that the two supplemental budgets that the legislature had previously approved had not been thoroughly examined because of a lack of time.

“The development led to a series of injustices,” he said. We require equity and fairness in the distribution of projects.

Jibrin Barau, the deputy president of the Senate, criticised his colleagues’ submissions and asserted that the Senate had all the necessary information to move forward with the budget deliberations.

“Only the merits and demerits of a bill are debated during the second reading, not the details,” he stated.

“We have everything necessary to conduct the second reading of the bill by virtue of our Rule 79.”

As the debate’s moderator, Bamidele delivered presentations that drew heavily from Tinubu’s budget speech.

He declared that all of the budget’s recommendations were admirable and would improve people’s lives.

In a same vein, the House of Representatives started debating the 2024 appropriations bill on Thursday after President Tinubu had submitted it on Wednesday.

After the appropriations measure was previously presented to the House, the general ideas of the bill were discussed and debated.

The bill was moved for a second reading by House Majority Leader Julius Ihonvbere, and it was seconded by Kingsley Chinda.

Ihonvbere, who chaired the debate, said that the budget proposal was a reality for examining important matters including the availability of funds, the alternatives for funding, the effectiveness of prior budgets, and the percentage of available monies that are allocated for all important areas.