… to be transmitted to President Buhari for Assent Today

Olusola Bello

The Senate on Wednesday passed the 2022 Appropriation Bill after it has upped the amount sent by the executive arm of government to N17.126 trillion.

It is expected to be transmitted to the president for assent today according to the Senate President, Ahmed Lawal.

The passage was done after the adoption of the 2022 budget report presented by the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Appropriations, Senator Jibrin Barau.

The Senate which later dissolved into the Committee at Wednesday’s plenary considered the clause by clause report of the budget report before the bill went through the third reading and eventual passage.

The breakdown of the budget includes N869 billion for statutory allocation, N3.8 trillion for debt servicing, N6.9 trillion and N5.4 trillion for recurrent and capital expenditure respectively.

Meanwhile, President of the Senate, Dr Ahmad Lawan, has disclosed that the National Assembly will on Thursday transmit the 2022 budget passed by both chambers to President Muhammadu Buhari for assent.

He also canvassed for the Senate to stabilise the nation’s polity ahead of the 2023 general elections as the Red Chamber prepares to consider the report of the committee on the review of the 1999 constitution upon resumption of plenary in January, 2022.

The Senate President dropped this hint on Wednesday in his remarks shortly before the chamber proceeded on recess. He emphasised that the timely signing of the 2022 Appropriation bill into law would ensure the commencement of its implementation by January next year.

According to him, businesses operating in the country, as well as the economy, stand to be impacted positively by the timely passage of the nation’s budget by the National Assembly.

He said, “For the 2022 Appropriation bill, we are expecting that the bill will be cleaned up between today and tomorrow, and we hope that by tomorrow (Thursday), the bill will be sent to Mr. President for his assent.

“ We are very optimistic that Mr. President will assent to the bill, like he did for 2020 and 2021, so that by January 2022, the implementation of the budget 2022 will commence by the grace of God.We have seen the benefits of passing and assenting to the budget in good time, especially when we had to fight COVID-19.

The consequence of the implementation of the budget in 2021 and 2020 was very clear. For us to come out of the recession that we found ourselves in the previous period, we must have had the fortune of passing the budget and getting Mr. President to sign on time.”

“So, we believe that the economy of Nigeria, and Nigerian businesses especially, will continue to benefit from the passage of the appropriation bills in time and the assent by Mr. President, accordingly.
“We wish to make it clear that our desire is to provide legislations for the peace, order and good government of our country.”

The Senate President further stated that the senate would consider the report of the Committee on the Review of the 1999 Constitution as soon as it is presented early next year.

His words: “When we return, we have one major that has not been attended to at all as a chamber, and that is the constitutional amendments.
“Our Committee on the Review of the 1999 Constitution has been doing its work. But as a chamber, we haven’t finished working on it.

“We are expectant that our Committee on the review of the constitution will be presenting the report to this chamber as soon as we resume. The committee has done so much, and the report is almost ready.
“When we harmonize with our colleagues in the House, we should be able to vote on the issues that will particularly bring about peace, unity and good government in our country, before such bill will be sent to the State Houses of Assembly for concurrence.

“On the whole, we must thank Almighty God that almost all those major items we reflected in our legislative agenda as a chamber has been attended to.

“There’s nothing that has been left out, including the review or amendment to our standing orders on how our committees have better and more clearly defined jurisdictions and, of course, how we conduct ourselves here as a chamber.

“And this is because we’ve remained united even in the face of sometimes very difficult issues. We have gone through such difficult moments with dignity and respect for each other, and we have come out even stronger.”