SENATE President Ahmad Lawan has said that the National Assembly will consider the 2023 budget proposal and pass it by December.
He made this known on Tuesday at a reception organised in his honour as a recipient of the national honours award of Grand Commander of the Order of Niger (GCON).
President Muhammadu Buhari had, on Friday, presented the 2023 budget of N20.5 trillion before a joint session of the National Assembly.
The budget is tagged ‘Budget of Fiscal Sustainability and Transition’.
Total expenditure for the 2023 budget was put at N20.5 trillion. This includes N8.27 trillion for (non-debt) recurrent costs, N5.35 trillion for capital expenditure and N1.1 trillion for overhead costs. Also, N744.11 billion was earmarked for statutory transfers.
In his speech, Lawan said the Senate would begin debate on the bill on Wednesday.
“Tomorrow (Wednesday) we will start the debate on the 2023 appropriation bill. Like we did before for the three previous sessions, we are going to pass it before the end of December.
“They know our contribution to not only the administration of good governance but also stability of the polity.”
Lawan noted that he believed that the National Assembly of today had provided so much input into political stability in Nigeria, saying that the records were there.
“We are purposeful and we are focused. It’s not for nothing that the presidency decided to give us 12 honours.”
He added, “People can look at what we have done and also those things that we didn’t do. I believe that our colleagues in the Ninth Senate worked so hard.”
Nurudeen Akewushola is an investigative reporter and fact-checker with The ICIR. He believes courageous in-depth investigative reporting is the key to social justice, accountability and good governance in society. You can reach him via [email protected] and @NurudeenAkewus1 on Twitter.