The Joint National Assembly Appropriations Committee stated that it had finalised plans to pass the 2024 appropriation measure by the end of the week.
The combined panel has already given all subcommittees a 48-hour deadline to submit their reports on the 2024 budget.
This was in preparation for President Bola Tinubu to sign the N27.5 trillion appropriation bill into law before the end of December.
Senator Solomon Adeola, chairman of the appropriation committee, said this during the panel’s meeting on Monday.
Adeola urged all subcommittees to fulfill the deadline so that the National Assembly could meet the January-December budget cycle.
“I am appealing to all my colleagues. Please, I am ready, and the deadline is Wednesday this week to receive all reports, all standing committees of the senate,” Adeola said.
“By Wednesday, any agency or any committee that has not submitted their report before the committee, it is assumed that you are giving us the omnibus power to go ahead and treat your budget independently of that committee.
“So, we are appealing to all chairmen of various committees to, please, submit their reports on or before Wednesday this week.
“Today, we formally open the secretariat to all chairmen of committees and their secretariat to start the defence of their respective budgets of their MDAs before the Committee on Appropriations.
“I want to implore my colleagues, please, we are readily available to receive their reports.”
Adeola expressed confidence that the budget would be enacted when the National Assembly reconvened on December 20.
“But without this submission before the committee, there is little or nothing we can do, and as you are all aware, the tradition of the National Assembly is to pass the budget into law by 31st of December of every year.
“This 10th Senate cannot be an exemption. We have to work round the clock. We understand the stress everybody is going through but that is why we are here.”The senators highlighted the issue of the 136 Nigerians imprisoned in Ethiopian jails in the subcommittee reports filed yesterday.
They also discussed the N5 billion projected in the budget to renovate the Obudu Cattle Ranch in Cross River State, as well as other national challenges.
