Sunday Aborisade in Abuja
The Chairman, Senate Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Senator Adeyemi Adaramodu, confirmed yesterday that both chambers of the National Assembly may likely pass the 2025 Appropriation Bill before the end of this week.
President Bola Tinubu laid the proposed fiscal document of N49.7 trillion before the joint session of the federal parliament late last year and the lawmakers gave the money bill, accelerated legislative action
The Senate and the House of Representatives joint Committees on Appropriation are expected to lay their reports today (Tuesday) except if there is any last-minute hitch in arrangements.
A likely delay could be that the federal lawmakers would likely skip plenary today (Tuesday).
This is to honour one of their late colleagues, Adewunmi Oriyomi Onanuga, popularly known as Ijaya, who served as the Deputy Chief Whip of the House of Representatives representing Ikenne/Sagamu/Remo North Federal Constituency until her death on 15 January 2025.
The two chambers initially scheduled to pass the budget on Friday, January 31, 2025 but the date was shifted to allow standing committees to complete their budget defence engagements with heads of federal ministries departments and agencies of the federal government.
There are however indications that the Appropriations Committees would lay their report before the adjournment of plenary today (Tuesday).
Adaramodu told journalists that the budget would, most likely, be passed this week depending on the content of the report expected to be presented by the National Assembly Committees on Appropriations before the respective chambers.
The Senate Spokesperson said: “We are reconvening on February 4th which is Tuesday. So, when we convene, we will be expecting the reports.
“Issues that the reports would generate will determine the day the budget will be passed.
“The deliberation on the budget will be robust. It is not going to be a graveyard silence.
“The report would be laid on the floor and then we will ask questions from the Committee on Appropriation and the Committee on Finance.
“Thereafter the Senate would seek the concurrence of the House of Representatives and the transmission to the presidency for assent will be done.
“The Senate is expecting the report of the Committee on Appropriation on Tuesday.
“Immediately, it will be committed to the Committee of the Whole chamber whereby we pick the budget clause by clause, almost line by line.
“We may likely pass the budget before the end of the week but it depends on so many variables, like the report of the Appropriations Committee and then the exhaustive debate that we will have on the budget report thereafter.
“We want to treat the budget thoroughly so that we will not be going back and forth on all these supplementary. We want to be thorough. We want to be thorough with it.”
On whether there would be an increase in the total budget sum presented by the President, Adaramodu said it would depend on the recommendations the Appropriations Committees make to both chambers in their report.
He further said: “Even if the budget is N100 trillion agencies would still ask for further increase.
“However, when we look at its merit, as contained in the report of the Appropriation Committee and that of Finance, we will do the needful.
“In any case, when we are dealing with the issue of budget, we have to be mindful of the revenue to be generated by the federal government.”
