Al-amin Abubakar —
Lawmakers from the Nigerian Senate, many of whom are members of the Appropriation Committee, yesterday, blamed the Federal Ministry of Works and Housing for refusing to accommodate some constituency projects in the N819.5 billion extra budget bill submitted by President Buhari last Wednesday.
An emergency meeting of the Appropriation Committee to find ways of addressing concerns of members was overtaken by outrage from aggrieved lawmakers.
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Chairman of the committee, Sen. Jibrin Barau, was forced to adjourn the meeting and lawmakers insisted on a closed-door session where they say “frank deliberations on the issues could be achieved”, according to the Guardian.
He suggested that all the sub-committees on Works and Housing be allowed to do legislative work on the budget bill and report back to the Appropriation Committee today.
As things stand, the fate of the 2023 budget bill lies in the extent to which the Appropriation Committee can address the lawmakers’ grievances.
The failure of the N819.5 billion Supplementary Budget Bill submitted by President Buhari on Wednesday to address earlier complaints by the lawmakers, concerning Constituency projects has heightened a face-off between the Executive arm and Legislature.
Many lawmakers, who were aggrieved by “selective execution” of previous budgetary provisions for key infrastructural projects, disclosed that the fate of the 2023 budget was worsened by the refusal of the executive to provide for the completion of many Constituency projects.
