Babatunji Wusu –
The N27.5 trillion budget for 2024 is about to be approved by the National Assembly once government departments finish presenting their plans.
In an interview with Punch, Senate Appropriations Chairman Senator Adeola Solomon declared that the committee is prepared to receive and examine reports from subcommittees.
Senator Solomon expects the committee’s report to be submitted by Thursday and the budget to be passed by Saturday, with faith in the process.
Remember that in November 2023, President Bola Tinubu unveiled the comprehensive budget, which included a N9.18 trillion deficit for the fiscal year.
Tinubu stated, “The N9.18tn deficit is lower than the N13.78tn deficit recorded in 2023 which represents 6.11 per cent of GDP.
“The deficit will be financed by new borrowings totaling N7.83tn, N298.49bn from privatisation proceeds and N1.05tn drawdown on multilateral and bilateral loans secured for specific development projects.”
The N27.5 trillion budget was approved by the Senate for a second reading on December 1, 2023.
Reports from the various committees have begun to be submitted following the defense of the budget for roughly 541 MDAs.
The practice began last Monday with the MDAs defending their budgets before the several National Assembly committees.
For example, before the Committee on Power of the National Assembly, the Federal Ministry of Power and its seven agencies presented their budgets for approval.
In a similar vein, before the Committee on Education, the Federal Ministry of Education and 23 parastatals that report to it defended their budgets.
Additionally, the ministry’s eight agencies and numerous teaching hospitals were expected to appear before the National Assembly Committee on Health to defend their budgets.
Since last Monday, the Senate has seen a significant volume of activity as heads of several MDAs have met with chairmen and members of committees.
The Federal Government was operating 541 MDAs, as verified by Adeola, the then-Chairman of the Senate Committee on Finance, in September of last year. Adeola emphasized that over 400 of these MDAs were to be eliminated, per the recommendations of the Presidential Committee on Agency Rationalization, which was led by Stephen Orosanye.
Adeola declared on Monday that the Senate would not back down before the deadline of December 31, 2023.
He said, “Today, we formally opened the secretariat to all chairmen of committees and their secretariat to start the defence of their respective budget of their MDAs before the Committee on Appropriations.
“Let me use this medium to call on all committee chairmen that we have a deadline and we will and we are working audaciously hard to ensure we meet that deadline.
“And I want to implore my colleagues, to please, be readily available to receive their reports. We don’t want to act on any ministry or agencies of the government without not having the input of their respective committees from the chairmen of the various committees.”
Adeola noted that if the chairmen of committees refused to submit their budget by the deadline, the Appropriation Committee would allocate funds to the agencies based on its discretion.
He said, “We are begging. We are appealing that the National Assembly resume plenary on the 20th of this month (Wednesday) and that is when we are expected to present the budget.
“But without this submission to the committee, there is little or nothing we can do and as you are all aware, the tradition of the National Assembly is to pass the budget into law by December 31 of every year.
“This 10th Senate cannot be an exemption. We have to work round the clock. We understand the stress everybody is going through but that is why we are here.
“I am appealing to all my colleagues to please, I am ready and the deadline is Wednesday this week to receive all reports of all standing committees of the Senate.
“By Wednesday, any agency or any committee that does not submit its report to the committee, we will go ahead and treat your budget independent of that committee.
“So, we are appealing to all chairmen of various committees to please submit their reports on or before Wednesday this week.
“We have a deadline and the deadline is that we want to ensure that we pass this bill into law before December 31, 2023. So that by January 1, 2024, implementation can commence in earnest.”
Adeola further hinted that the Committee on Appropriations would likely lay its report before the Senate on Thursday and the budget might get passed by Saturday.
He said, “We are already late and behind time because time is no longer on our side. In a matter of a few days, it would be Christmas in four days, after that, it’s the New Year.
“The budget would be laid on the floor of the Senate by Thursday and should be passed maybe on Saturday. The fourth and fifth stages cannot be decided now if the third stage which we are in is not concluded. Everything is dependent on the submission of reports by various committees.”
On the adjustment being made on the budget, Adeola said it was too early to pre-empt the matter, as time would tell what the size of the budget would be.
He said, “We have started taking correspondence from one or two of our colleagues. A special plea has been made for one or two agencies that have appeared, hiding under the fact that the funding is small.
“We are watching and waiting and when the right decision is made, then we can now start having an idea of what the real size of the budget will look like. But for now, we have a budget of N27.5tn.”
Similarly, the Spokesperson for the Senate, Semator Yemi Adaramodu, said the budget would likely be laid on Thursday, stating that all committees were expected to submit their report by Wednesday.
He said, “Once the report is submitted, both the Senate Appropriations Committee and the House of Representatives will then sit on the budget to aggregate it.
“They would check for necessary adjustments, if both committees are on the same page, then the report can be considered and passed for the third reading.
“It’s not about the day but the process of the passage of the budget. If it so demands that we come on Saturday to come pass the budget, we will and even if it’s on a Sunday, we will all come here to pass the budget.”
The House of Representatives, on its part said it was optimistic that the defence of the 2024 budget proposal by the ministries, departments and agencies would be completed before December 31, 2023.
The seemingly slow pace of defence by some MDAs has led to insinuations in some quarters that the lawmakers may find it difficult to pass the budget, thus rendering the January-December cycle somewhat difficult for the administration of President Bola Tinubu.
However, the spokesman for the House and Chairman of the Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Akin Rotimi, dismissed the fears, noting that the House was expecting a report on how cooperative or otherwise the MDAs had been so far.
He said, “The report of the Appropriation Committee is to be presented this week. If there are any issues about the MDAs, the House will be advised accordingly.
“I have observed the highest level of cooperation going by my observation of proceedings so far. I have no reason to doubt that we are up to the task of diligently carrying out our constitutional obligation of scrutinising and passing the 2024 budget in time to become operational by January 1, 2024.”
The Minority House Leader, Kingsley Chinda, urged his colleagues to brace up for the exercise, stressing that missing the January-December budget cycle would not augur well for the nation’s economy.
Chinda, a member of the Peoples Democratic party representing Obio Akpor Federal Constituency, Rivers State, said, “Missing the established January to December cycle will be a setback to our economy as it will affect the planning and projection of most organisations that have come to believe in the established cycle.
“It will take our budget back to the days of unpredictability of the national budget cycle. I advise that the government takes the cycle seriously.”
He, however, added that “of most importance is the implementation and adequacy of the estimates.”
Also speaking on the matter, the Chairman of House Committee on Judiciary, Oluwole Oke, said that given the commitment of the 10th House to make a difference, “the 2024 budget will be passed before the year runs out.”
He added, “Although, it is subject to amendment or even a supplementary budget may be submitted by the Commander-in-Chief if need be.”
Similarly, a member of the Labour Party representing Ezeagu/Udi Federal Constituency, Enugu State, Sunday Umeha, said parliament did not envisage the non-passage of the Appropriation Bill in 2023 given its importance to the repositioning of Nigeria for greatness.
Umeha, who doubles as the Deputy Chairman of the House Committee on Justice, said, “The National Assembly is working to ensure that the budget and process of appropriation are effectively carried out within a reasonable time frame this year (2023).”
