Under the former Senate President, Bukola Saraki, the country’s budget spent between six and seven months before passage at the National Assembly. Lawan, who was elected Tuesday as Senate President and chairman of the National Assembly, was responding to a question on the annual delays.
“This worries everyone; every Nigerian wants to see the National Assembly pass the budget in good time and what we have in mind we’ve campaigned with that and it’s something both of us in the National Assembly have bought into that, we’ll pass the budget within three months by the grace of God.
“But I want to say here that it takes two sides of government to pass the budget in good time and I am sure that the executive would like to present the budget before the National Assembly in good time – in September or early October and by the grace of God we in the National Assembly will ensure that we carry out the budget defence and do the remaining parts of the process and before we leave for Christmas break, the budget would have been passed and Mr President would have it before him to sign and assent.”
Lawan, however, said for the quick passage to be realistic, the executive and the legislature must be ready to make sacrifices. “It is our desire in the National Assembly that every minister, every chief executive officer of every agency comes to the National Assembly and defend the budget of his agency or her agency before going out of the country. “That window is going to be available within the one month but that is the only window that is going to be available.
After that for example, every minister or head of agency who does not come to defend the budget of that institution, the National Assembly would go ahead to work on such a budget appropriately,” he said. He said they would work hard to catch up with the lost ground of the last four years.
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