NASS Makes U-Turn Over Passage Of 2016 Budget

Indications emerged yesterday that the National Assembly may have rescinded its decision to indefinitely suspend its passage of the 2016 budget.

While the leadership of the House of Representatives has expressed optimism that the 2016 may be passed into law as anticipated on Thursday, February 25, 2016, the leader of the Senate, Ali Ndume, said yesterday that the Senate was striving to pass the 2016 budget before the end of March.

Ndume also said, contrary to reports in the media, that at no time did the Senate indefinitely suspend its passage of the N6.08 trillion 2016 budget, explaining that the Red Chamber only said that the February 25 dateline earlier given “may not be feasible.”
Concerns have continued to persist over the accuracy of the fiscal document alleged to have been seriously ‘padded’ and replete with errors.

After the first reading of the budget at plenary, both the Senate and the House of Representatives had fixed February 25 for the passage of the budget, soon after defence sessions with the various ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) at the committee level may have been concluded.

But the National Assembly last Tuesday announced that the February 25 deadline it gave for the passage of the budget estimates was no longer feasible due to inherent errors, ambiguities and phoney figures (padding) smuggled into the fiscal document.

Chairmen of Appropriation Committees of both chambers, Senator Danjuma Goje and Hon. Abdulmumin Jibrin, noted that they had postponed passage of the budget indefinitely due to gross errors already identified in the entire budget estimates at both chambers.

But in what apparently looks like an about turn, the House of Representatives said at the weekend that it was working closely with the executive arm of government to ensure the speedy passage of the budget as planned.