The Senate on Saturday explained why the National Assembly accelerated passage of the 2023 Supplementary Appropriation Bill of N2.17trillion within 48 hours.

It said the budget needed to be passed to allow for speedy implementation in view of the limited lifespan of the budget which terminates on December 31, 2023.

The budget was submitted to the National Assembly by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu on Tuesday and the Senate as well as House of Representatives suspended their relevant rules to ensure that the bill was passed for both first and second reading.

It was referred to the Committees on Appropriation in the two chambers who worked on it on Wednesday and presented their reports on Thursday which was considered and approved.

The Vice Chairman, Senate Committee on Appropriation, Senator Mohammed Ali Ndume, gave the explanation while responding to questions from reporters in Abuja on Saturday.

Ndume told journalists the National Assembly accelerated the budget passage because of certain national interests.

He said: “There have been increases in the price of fuel, costs of essential services and food items have gone up in the country following the withdrawal of fuel subsidy.

“Workers embarked on strike many times as a result of this and there were negotiations between the organised labour unions and the Federal Government.

“At the end of the negotiations, the Labour and the Federal Government agreed that workers would be paid N35,000 in addition to their minimum wage.

“If N35,000 is paid to each of the over 1.5 million workers, the amount is huge. The money was captured in the supplementary budget.

“There were also agitations among parents of students in tertiary institutions following the increment in the tuition fees and the Federal Government came up with a wonderful idea of giving loans to students in tertiary institutions hence provision of N5.5 billion was made in the supplementary budget for that purpose also.

“The two Chambers of the National Assembly met on it and we both agreed to jerk it up to N10billion. This is because our members from the House of Representatives argued that the provision of N5billion made for the procurement of the Presidential Yacht was not necessary at the moment.

“It was the Yacht money that we added to the initial N5billion allocated for students’ loan which jerked it up to N10billion.

“We had already acted on the N5billion provided for the presidential yacht and removed it from the budget before the public outcry.

“It is not true that the Senate was silent on the N5billion

Provided for the yacht. We had harmonised with the House of Representatives before the joint appropriation committee of both chambers prepared and presented their reports. It was even signed by the two chairmen.

“The only thing was that the Navy asked us to forget about the yacht and pleaded with us to allow them have the N5billion so as to enhance their operations especially in the areas of fighting oil bunkering and crude oil theft in the Niger Delta and we immediately told them to utilise their operational funds for that purpose.”

Ndume commended President Tinubu for ensuring that every state of the Federation would benefit from the capital projects captured in the Supplementary Budget.

“There is also the N300billion allocated to the Federal Ministry of Works. It is not for the construction of new roads but to make the existing roads motorable. This is the opportunity to do so now that we are already in the dry season.

“There is no single provision for the National Assembly and we ensured that each geopolitical zone in the country got N8billion to fix roads in their areas,” he said.

He added: “There Is also the provision of N8billion for the takeoff of the new ministries that were created by the President Bola Tinubu-led administration. It is very important for them to get certain things put on ground to start working.

“A particular amount of money was also provided in the Ministry of Agriculture which was meant for the purchase of grains as palliatives to encourage farmers to engage in dry season farming so as to guarantee food security.

“Apart from this, the Senate considered that since the Independent National Electoral Commission has its off-cycle elections in Bayelsa, Imo and Kogi states on November 11, the sum of N18billion was captured for that purpose in the supplementary budget, they needed to access the funds for proper conduct of the polls.

“The Nigeria Police Force is supposed to supervise the election and it would need more personnel hence the sum of N20billion was earmarked for that purpose.

“The Nigerian Army would also need additional money to pay special duty allowances to the soldiers on the field who are currently engage in all the states of the federation. Each of them is being paid a minimum of N5, 000 per day. It is not a small amount of money at all.

“Another item captured in the budget is housing sector which got N100billion. The thinking of the government is that it will tackle the challenge of housing deficits in most urban areas in the country.

“The sum of N28billion was allocated to the State House. The funds allocated for the presidential fleet was for the maintenance of the aircraft which are serviced abroad in dollars. President Bola Tinubu did not buy a single aircraft.

“He inherited all of them and he has to maintain them otherwise if he skips their maintenance the aircraft would all be grounded.

“We asked questions as members of the nation’s parliament and we were satisfied with the answers provided.” (The Nation: Text, Excluding Headline)

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