Senate President Ahmad Lawan says
henceforth, the national assembly will ensure the passage of the nation’s
budget within three months of its submission by the executive.
Lawan made the promise when he
fielded questions from state house correspondents after joining President
Muhammadu Buhari to perform the weekly Friday’s Juma’at prayer at the Aso Rock
mosque, Abuja.
He, however, expressed the hope
that the executive would always ensure early submission of the budget enable
the assembly deliberate and pass it in good time.
“Well, this is a crucial thing
that worries everyone, every Nigerian wants to see the national assembly pass
the budget in good time and what we have in mind we’ve campaigned with that and
it’s something both of us in the national assembly have bought into – that
we’ll pass the budget within three months by the grace of God,” he said.
“But I want to say here that it
takes two sides of government to pass the budget in good time. I am sure that
the executive side of the government would like to present the budget before
the national assembly in good time – in September or early October.
“By the grace of God, we in the
national assembly will ensure that we carry out the budget defence and do the
remaining parts of the processes and before we leave for Christmas break, the
budget would have been passed and Mr President would have the budget before him
to assent.”
The senate president, therefore,
called for sacrifice by both the assembly and the executive so as to create “a
window for budget defence only, a dedicated period and time-frame- say a month
of which only budget defence will be carried out in the national assembly.
“It is our desire in the national
assembly that every minister, every chief executive officer of every agency
comes to the national assembly and defence the budget of his agency or her
agency before going out of the country,” he said.
“That window is going to be
available within the one month but that is the only window that is going to be
available.
“After that for example, every
minister or head of agency who did not come to defend the budget of that
institution, we will go ahead to work on such a budget appropriately.’’
According to Lawan, the national
assembly is in a hurry and thirsty to perform and will support Buhari in his
efforts to transform the nation’s economy for the benefit of all citizens.
He added “I believe that nobody
would take pleasure in wasting the time of this administration.
“We are in a hurry, we are
thirsty to perform, we want to support Mr President, we want to see Mr
President achieve those legacies dreams that he has and we are going to work
full course and full time to ensure that we give him the maximum support that
he requires.’’
Last year, the budget was delayed
for seven months before it was passed.
this is a senate president, may God give you the grace needed to not just talk but do/perform
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