A member of the House of Representatives, Alhassan Doguwa said the National Assembly did an upward review of the 2024 budget recently signed by President Bola Tinubu.
Doguwa, representing Doguwa/TudunWada Federal Constituency from Kano State stated this in an interview on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily on Thursday.
According to him, the National Assembly is not the only government institution whose budget was upwardly reviewed in the 2024 budget.
The 2024 budget was increased to ₦28.7 trillion from the initial ₦27.5 trillion presented by the President to the National Assembly in November.
Doguwa, who is the Chairman of the House Committee on Petroleum Upstream, said that others, like the Ministries of Defense, Police Affairs, Agriculture, and Health, also saw their budgets raised by the legislators.
The lawmaker said, “What was budgeted for NASS by Mr President was slightly lower than what we have finally passed into law.
“Of course, for very obvious operational and institutional reasons, we also reconsidered budgeted funds for other agencies of government like the Ministry of Defence, the Police Affairs, Ministry of Agriculture, the Health Ministry.”
Doguwa noted that what was budgeted for the National Assembly was not only meant for the elected members alone but other institutions that made up the legislative arm of the government.
He said, “It is not for the 109 Senators in the Senate, it’s not also for the 360 members of the House of Representatives.
“A budget for the National Assembly is a holistic and lump sum budget for the institutions, departments and sectoral creations in what we call the National Assembly of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.”