The National Assembly has passed the 2019 Appropriation
Bill. The N8.9 trillion budget was passed some minutes ago during the Senate’s
plenary session headed by Senate President, Bukola Saraki.
Note that the national budget was raised from N8.906
trillion to N8.916 trillion.
While appreciating his colleagues for meeting the deadline
for the passage of the budget, Saraki urged the Federal Government to ensure
the budget is implemented on time in order to benefit Nigerians.
“I WANT TO THANK OUR
COLLEAGUES, PARTICULARLY FOR THEIR UNDERSTANDING AND FOR US TO BE ABLE TO MEET
TODAYS DEADLINE IN PASSING THE BILL AND THANK THE COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATION
TOO.”- SENATE PRESIDENT,
“I HOPE THAT WITH THIS BUDGET PASSED, THE EXECUTIVE WILL
ALSO ENSURE THE FULL IMPLEMENTATION OF THE BUDGET FOR THE BENEFIT OF NIGERIANS
AS A WHOLE.”
“I want to thank our
colleagues, particularly for their understanding and for us to be able to meet
todays deadline in passing the Bill and thank the committee on appropriation
too.”- Senate President, @bukolasaraki
“I hope that with
this Budget passed, the Executive will also ensure the full implementation of
the Budget for the benefit of Nigerians as a whole.”- Senate President,
@bukolasaraki
Senate beat its 2017 and 2018 records: The 2019 budget was
passed five months after President Muhammadu Buhari presented the appropriation
bill to the National Assembly in December 2018. This is an improvement compared
to the passage of the 2017 and 2018 budget which took six months each.
Possible altercation between the NASS and President Buhari:
There’s a possibility that the eventual signing of the bill by President
Muhammadu Buhari could lead to another disagreement over some projects in the
budget.
Recall that in 2018, President Buhari accused NASS of making
changes to the budget in what was widely reported as budget padding. This
action, he said, worried him a lot, even as he argued that the Executive
decides its policies and budgets and not the legislature.
Why President Buhari condemned NASS in 2018: The National
Assembly made cuts amounting to N347 billion in the allocations to 4,700
projects submitted to them for consideration and introduced 6,403 projects of
their own amounting to N578 billion Naira.
Although there is no current report that the Senate has cut
budget for any projects, that, however, will likely be revealed after the
signing of the budget into law by President Buhari.
When President Buhari will sign the bill: While there’s no
official date as to when President Buhari will sign the budget into law,
history shows he probably will sign the budget in June as he did in 2018 and
Yomi Osinbajo did in June 2017.
However, in 2016, President Buhari signed the budget in May,
a month before June, which seem to have become the preferred month in the last
two years.
By Fakoyejo Olalekan
