2023 Budget Ready For Passage Soon

The National Assembly, NASS will pass the 2023 Appropriation Bill by the end of the year, Senate President, Ahmad Lawan has said.

Lawan, the Chairman of the NASS disclosed this in Abuja on Tuesday, five days after President Muhammadu Buhari presented the N20.5 trillion monetary estimates to the Assembly.

The Senate President spoke the News Agency of Nigeria, NANS after he was decorated with the national award of the Grand Commander of the Order of Niger, GCON, by the president. He was among over 400 distinguished recipients of national honours.

According to Lawan, the Assembly has decided to get to work immediately to ensure that the Budget is passed by December.

He said, “Tomorrow, we will start the debate on the 2023 appropriation bill. As we did for the three previous sessions, we are going to pass it before the end of December.

“We are purposeful and we are focused. It’s not for nothing that the presidency decided to honour 12 of us.

“They know our contribution to not only the administration of good governance but also the stability of the polity.

“I strongly believe that the national assembly of today has provided so much input into political stability in Nigeria. The records are there.

“People can look at what we have done and also those things that we didn’t do. I believe that our colleagues in the 9th senate worked so hard.”

Meanwhile, the 2023 Appropriation Bill has generated reactions from Nigerians who insist that a huge part of the budget has been allocated to areas that will not directly benefit the country.

For instance, not a few have condemned the foreign trip component of the President and his vice, expected to gulp over N3 billion.

According to the breakdown, N2.49bn is set aside for the president’s trips N862,076,448 for local travel and transport, while international travel and transport is N1,633,464,208.

The vice president is also expected to spend N846,607,097 budget on foreign tour; N330,320,396 for local travel and transport, as well as N516, 286,701 for international travel and transport.

The other component of the budget that has not been well received by Nigerians is the N14 billion budgeted to cater for internet access and others things in the presidency.

Reacting to the issue, the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project, SERAP, has urged President Buhari to withdraw N14.8 billion earmarked for Internet access in the budget.

‘We urge President Buhari to immediately withdraw the plan to spend N14.8bn on Internet access, stationery, telephone and electricity in the Presidential Villa, and to reduce the spending, given the country’s economic situation and level of borrowing,” SERAP said in a statement.