The Presidency has sent a crucial message to the National Assembly ahead of the presentation of the 2024 appropriation bill on Wednesday, November 29.
Politics Nigeria reports that President Bola Tinubu conveyed his intention to address the joint session of the legislative chambers through the Senate President Godswill Akpabio and Speaker Tajudeen Abbas.
This is even as the Federal Executive Council (FEC) yesterday approved the N27.5 trillion proposal to be presented by the President tomorrow.
A source in the Presidency says Tinubu will put senators and representatives under pressure to pass the appropriation bill before end of December 2023.
According to the source, lawmakers would have to work round the clock to screen the figures and pass the bill it for the President’s assent expected to be by December 31.
This, the source said, was in line with the objective of keeping the January-December budget cycle.
“Don’t forget that the Senate President, who is the Chairman of the National Assembly, had vowed the commitment of the 10th National Assembly to keep to the January-December cycle,” he said.
“Also, don’t forget that the President had warned ministers and heads of Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) to always honour the summons of the National Assembly Committees as a matter of duty.
“Gone were the days when heads of MDAs will travel out of the country to evade appearing before relevant committees.
“After the presentation of the budget on Wednesday (tomorrow), the National Assembly will still have a clear one month period to consider and pass the budget.”
Another source said the Chairman of the Senate Committee Appropriation, Solomon Adeola, has demonstrated to be a goal-getter on critical national assignments.
The source said: “When he was the chairman of the Finance Committee during the 9th Senate, he ensured that important Bills like the Finance Bill were passed in record time even if he had to work for 24 hours to get the job done.
“He has equally said that apart from MDAs appearing before relevant committees, he will summon any head of MDAs that has issues to explain their allocations.”
But another senator said that getting the budget ready might be tedious for the lawmakers going by the enormous work involved.
