THE Nigerian Senate has passed the N2.17 trillion 2023 supplementary appropriation bill, recently sent by President Bola Tinubu.
The passage followed the adoption of the report of the harmonised sittings of the Senate and House of Representatives on the bill as submitted by the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Appropriations, Senator Solomon Olamilekan Adeola.
Olamilekan had presented the committee’s report, which was adopted and debated before the Senate President, GodswillAkpabio, put it to voice vote and senators across party lines voted in favour.
On Tuesday, October 31, the supplementary appropriation bill passed the first and second readings in both chambers of the National Assembly.
The lawmakers, while passing the bill, identified the need to particularly enhance the critical needs of the people and subsequently referred it to the Committee of Supply for consideration.
Tinubu, on Tuesday, October 31 wrote to the National Assembly seeking the consideration of the supplementary budget a day after it was approved by the Federal Executive Council (FEC).
Although there were sections of the budget breakdown that Nigerians labelled as ‘misappropriation of funds,’ the House of Representatives said it had only scrapped the N5 billion appropriated in the budget for a presidential yacht.
Addressing journalists after the passage of the supplementary budget by the Senate, Chairman, House Committee on Appropriation, Abubakar Bichi, explained that the lawmakers considered public interest in scrapping the provision for the yacht and transferring the sum to add to the 5.5 billion naira student loan.
The ICIR reported public outrage that trailed the President’s allocation of N28 billion for buying luxury cars for the First Lady’s office and the renovation of the President’s residence, among other allocations for the State House.
The review of the proposed budget showed that N4 billion was outlined for the renovation of the President’s residential quarters and N2.5 billion for his vice’s.
The government also plans to spend N50 billion to construct 40,000 units of ‘Renewed Hope mini-estates nationwide.
The office of the National Security Adviser was allocated N73 billion. There is an additional N2.9 billion for the purchase of Sport Utility Vehicles (SUVs) for the Presidential Villa, as well as another N2.9 billion for the replacement of operational vehicles used by the presidency.
The ICIR had, in December 2022, reported that the Senate approved former President Muhammadu Buhari’s request for a N819.54 billion supplementary budget meant to fix infrastructure destroyed by floods across the country.
The approval increased the 2022 budget deficit to N8.17 trillion and the deficit-to-the gross domestic product ratio of 4.43 per cent.
Usman Mustapha is a solution journalist with International Centre for Investigative Reporting. You can easily reach him via: umustapha@icirnigeria.com. He tweets @UsmanMustapha_M