By Modupe Gbadeyanka
Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mr Yakubu Dogara, has hinted that the ‘delayed’ 2017 appropriation bill would be signed into law by the executive next week.
Mr Dogara dropped this hint on Friday during a special plenary session held to mark the 2nd anniversary of the House.
The Speaker said the lower chamber of the National Assembly did its best to ensure the 2017 budget passage was transparent and devoid of controversies that almost marred last year’s passage of the appropriation bill.
He therefore said the budget would be signed into law by the executive early next week.
It was earlier rumoured that the budget was supposed to be assented to last Thursday by the Acting President, Mr Yemi Osinbajo, but reports later claimed this was shifted to allow President Muhammadu Buhari, who is presently on medical vacation in London, return to the country to carry out this duty.
“On issue of budget, we kept our promise to Nigerians at the beginning of the legislative session to ensure transparent deliberation and passage of the 2017 Appropriations Bill, which will be signed into law early next week,” the Speaker hinted.
He said further that, “We have also carried out significant budget reforms. For the first time in the history of Nigeria, a public hearing was conducted in the National Assembly to get the input of Nigerians in the budgetary process.
“Further reforms introduced include the details of the Appropriation Act being available to all members before passage in plenary; the requirement that members of each Committee should sign the report of their Committees before being sent to the Committee on Appropriations.”
“All these novel measures are unprecedented in the history of our parliament. These proactive measures ensured that the House’s debate and consideration of the 2017 budget proposal presented by the President was evidence based and geared towards galvanizing the economy for greater growth,” he remarked.
