The House of Representatives has suspended the second reading of the 2019 Appropriation Bill indefinitely.
The Speaker, Mr Yakubu Dogara, had on Wednesday said the second reading of the national budget would commence on Thursday.
“I hope copies of the budget have been circulated. If copies of the budget have been circulated, we may have to start the second reading of the budget tomorrow,” Dogara had said.
Although the bill was listed on the Order Paper of Thursday for its second reading, the Speaker however stood it down as all the lawmakers had yet to get copies of the budget. He stated that the bill would not be considered until all members had copies.
Dogara said, “We will not take the debate on the second reading of the budget until all members have copies. So, we will have to fix a new date.”
As the lawmakers plan to work on the budget, they have yet to pass the 2019-2021 Medium Term Expenditure Framework and Fiscal Strategy Paper over two months after it was transmitted to them.
Although the law stipulates that the MTEF/FSP should be sent to the National Assembly for ratification by September of each year, President Muhammadu Buhari only sent the document to the Legislature on November 6, 2018, while he presented the 2019 budget on December 19, 2018.
The MTEF/FSP, which contains the economic assumptions with which the budget was to be prepared, was supposed to have been passed before it was presented.
In his covering letter attached to the MTEF/FSP proposal, Buhari, who stated the necessity of passing it before budget presentation, had urged the National Assembly to ensure speedy passage of the document.
The Federal Executive Council had earlier in October approved the 2019-2021 MTEF/FSP, which proposed N8.73tn for the 2019 budget, N400bn lower than that of the current fiscal year.
The Federal Government had also pegged the price of crude oil for the 2019 budget at $60 per barrel, the exchange rate at N305 per United States dollar, and daily crude oil production at 2.3 million barrels per day.
The PUNCH had reported on December 25, 2018, how some lawmakers said it would be impossible for the National Assembly to start and complete work on the national budget before the general elections.
They, however, promised to begin work on it when the National Assembly reconvenes in March or April.
Meanwhile, Dogara, in his opening address on Thursday, stated that the lawmakers still had issues to attend to, which he said were critical to the development of Nigeria.
He said, “With less than five months to the end of the eighth National Assembly, this is a good time to reflect on the journey we started in June, 2015. While we can corporately beat our chest that we have done appreciably well as a House, we must realise that the remaining period demands of us to work assiduously and expeditiously, so that we can dispose of the huge legislative assignments that still lie ahead of us.
“This will enable us to sustain to the very last day the unsurpassed record of legislative output we have achieved, thus finishing as strongly as we started and have fared.
“The 2019 Appropriation Bill is the major assignment we have to discharge as quickly as possible so that the government’s business will not be impeded as the life of the Federal Government draws to a close. It is imperative in this regard that we accelerate our pace of work in all the legislative processes involved in the bill so that it can be passed in good time.”
