Knocks as Nigeria signs N2.1tr supplementary budget
By Usman Ahmed Kanempress
9th November 2023
Nigerians have continued to react to the signing of the N2.176 trillion 2023 Supplementary Appropriation Bill by President Bola Tinubu.
Nigerians described the act of signing as ill-timed, even as they knocked the lawmakers for failing to scrutinise demands by the executive arm of government.
According to Kanempress, the Deputy President of Trade Union Congress of Nigeria (TUC), Tommy Okon, had said Government should have gauged the mood in the economy by focusing on the well-being of citizens and reducing waste.
“I expect Mr. President and the National Assembly to stand their ground and not allow it to happen. Just like the House of Assembly said, the money should go to student loan, which would have been the proper thing to do,” Okon noted.
“When we look at how much was budgeted for student loan compared to what was budgeted for the presidential yacht, it is economic waste, especially at this time that the economy is bleeding. National Assembly members should be very sensitive to this,” Okon insisted.
Similarly, an economic analyst, Professor Jonathan Aremu, on the hand said: “This is not the time to pump too much money into the economy; otherwise, it will be counterproductive. Because the more naira you pump into the economy, the more pressure you put on the foreign exchange.”
Professor Aremu also urged the lawmakers to play its role by critically looking into bills sent by the executive.
The Lead Director, Centre for Social Justice (CSJ), Eze Onyekpere, said the National Assembly simply rubber-stamped the bill.
According to Eze Onyekpere, this shows lawmakers do not fully understand their constitutional powers of appropriation, which involves scrutiny of executive proposals before they are passed.
“A supplementary appropriation is supposed to be presented by the executive if, in the original appropriation, there is a need for more money to meet what had earlier been appropriated,” Onyekpere said.
“But in this case, new items were introduced, some of them illegal. The vote for the office of the First Lady is illegal. That office is not recognised by the constitution or any law. Again, how do you explain the situation, where the supplementary budget is higher than the original amount appropriated for an item? For instance, in the original appropriation for cars in the villa, we have a little above N1 billion, but in the supplementary budget, you are asking for N5.8 billion,” he said.
A banker, Ande Mohammed, also disagreed with the National Assembly.
“This is not just a slap on the Nigerian people, but a show of lack of seriousness on the part of lawmakers. How can the executive get exactly the figures it sent to the Assembly? Why do they (lawmakers) exist? There is no difference between the executive and the legislature. They do the same work. They are partners. There are no areas of disagreement that will benefit the poor masses,” Mohammed said.
