The senate and the house of representatives yesterday endorsed the extension of the life cycle of the N21.8 trillion 2023 budget and the N2.17 trillion supplementary appropriation from June 30 to December 31, 2024.
The development came as following the request by President Bola Tinubu for the extension of the implementation of both budgets.
Recall that both chambers of the national assembly had in December 2023, extended the implementation period of the capital component of the budget for the fiscal year from December 31, 2023 to March 31, 2024, along with the ₦2.17 trillion 2023 supplementary budget passed in November, 2023.
Again, on the March 19 and 20 this year, a further extension was sought by the president for the implementation period from March 31, 2024, to June 30, 2024.
The senate president, Mr Godswill Akpabio, announced the extension of the appropriation bills during the plenary after it was read for the first, second and third times and supported by most senators.
He said the senate will monitor the implementation of the capital component through an oversight function.
“Implementation is left to the executive, and oversight is left for the legislative,” Mr Akpabio added.
The bills were separately considered at the senate committee on supply.
The senate leader, Mr Opeyemi Bamidele, led the debate on the extension of the budget during the plenary explained that the extension was required to allow the federal government to complete ongoing projects captured in the budgets.
“This Bill, therefore, intends to further extend the implementation period of the Acts to 31st December, 2024 given the strategic importance of some key projects nearing completion and to allow for continued implementation for the maximum benefit of the country.
“Undoubtedly, this would go a long way to avoid the compounding problems of abandoned projects. Hence, the need for the enactment of this proposed legislation to extend the implementation,” he said.
The minority leader, Mr Abba Moro, supported the extension of the appropriation bills, noting that there was the need for an extension of the budget.
In the house of representatives, its leader, Mr Julius Ihonvbere moved a motion to suspend the relevant sections of its rules to allow the bill to be given expeditious readings.
Ihonvbere who led the debate noted that the president’s request was a straight forward on.
He noted that the bill was did not seek to change the content of the Acts but to extend their life spans.
However, the minority leader, Mr Kingsley Chinda, said in his contribution to the debate that the national assembly had, in the past four years, worked to maintain a January-December budget cycle but that the request by the president was capable of derailing the cycle.
He said the extension would mean the country running three budgets concurrently, in addition to the 2024 supplementary budgets the president is expected to send to the national assembly soon.
“Let me say that there are things that are legal but morally not correct. We are aware of the importance of the implementation of capital projects, and we know what capital projects can do in the lives of our people.
“But the application for extension of the 2023 Appropriation Act is also coming with the request to extend the life of the 2023 supplementary budget. We are also expecting the 2024 supplementary budget. A situation where we may have four budgets running concurrently is a bit of a problem,” he said.
Mr Sada Soli spoke in support of the extension saying is nothing illegal in the request.
However, the former majority leader of the house, Mr Ado Doguwa spoke against the bills, describing the president’s request as “inappropriate” and reiterated the argument that it fails the moral test.
“You have two substantive budgets, the 2023 budget extended to December, and you are running them concurrently. I want to say without any fear of contradiction that the request may be legal, but that moral question will always be raised.
“For us as a House and an institution may not have the cause to stop it, I will be for it. I will convince people to be for it. We must unite ourselves and send a signal to the government of the federation,” he added.
But Mr Doguwa’s subsequent attempt to sway the lawmakers to grant the president’s request for the sake of the country was met with a hostile reaction as the members booed him.
However, the speaker Mr Abbas Tajudeen ruled that the request is critical for the security sector.
“The supplementary budget of 2023 is 90 per cent security-related. Because we couldn’t do everything we wanted to do, the president is asking that an extension be granted. Please, let’s kindly support this,” he said.
