Six months after President Muhammadu Buhari presented the 2018 budget to the National Assembly, the lawmakers yesterday failed to lay it for consideration, contrary to their promise to do so.
The President presented the document to the lawmakers on November 7, 2017, urging them to pass it on time to enable the country return to the January – December budget cycle, which has not been in place for many years because of the delayed passage. This year’s delay is the longest since the country returned to democratic rule in 1999.
There was no mention of the budget at the plenary in the Senate and the House of Representatives yesterday.
Last week, the House of Representatives promised that the budget would be laid yesterday and passed before the end of the week.
But the Order Paper of the House carried no such item. Reporters were also not told why it was not listed but it might not be unconnected with the failure of some of the committees to submit their reports to the Appropriation Committee.
Briefing reporters last Thursday, House Committee on Media and Publicity Chairman Abdulrasak Namdas said: “By the Grace of God, we will lay the budget on Tuesday (yesterday) and then try to pass it that same week.
“We are laying it on Tuesday and I can assure you that within that same week, we’re going to pass it.
“We tried to do that, but you know, the budget is a voluminous document.. Actually, we’ve been working hard so that we can beat the deadline, and hopefully this time around, I can assure you that by next week (this week), everything about the budget will be concluded and passed.”
The Senate also gave assurance on the passage of the budget this week.
On Monday after meeting with President Buhari, Senate President Bukola Saraki said the budget might be laid this week and passed next week.
Before then, the lawmakers had been giving conflicting dates. House Speaker Yakubu Dogara promised the passage of the Budget by late April. House Committee on Appropriation Chairman Mustapha Dawaki said it would be passed this month.
After a meeting between the leadership of the National Assembly and the President, the lawmakers accused some ministers and heads of agencies of failing to defend their budgets, thereby causing the delay. The President issued an order for those involved to comply.
Saraki on another occasion accused some committees of the Senate of failing to do their job with dispatch.
Yesterday, efforts to reach Namdas, who promised on behalf of the House that the budget would be laid yesterday, failed.
He was said to have travelled to South Africa on an assignment. - The Nation
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