Senate Leader, Ahmad Lawan, on
Thursday said the nature of the 2018 Appropriation Bill to be presented to the
National Assembly next week would determine how soon it would be passed into
law.
Lawan said this in an interview
with State House correspondents shortly after he and Senator Sola Adeyeye met
President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
The senate leader said although
it was the desire of all stakeholders that the bill is passed latest by
December 31, federal lawmakers would do a thorough job on the document.
“It (passing the budget by
December 31) depends on how it goes. You know we are supposed to be working for
the same people of Nigeria and we will like to see the National Assembly
working with the executive arm of government.
“You know these things will be
determined by what the budget looks like, the estimates presented to us because
naturally, we always try to do a very thorough job, a very patriotic job to
ensure that the budget is implementable, to ensure there is equity, fairness,
and justice in the distribution of projects across the country.
“We will like to see that done,
but we shouldn’t just do that at all costs; we should be looking at the
benefits that could accrue from doing that and whether it is possible to just
do it at once or maybe reduce the period in two phases or even more.
“The 2017 budget took effect from
June this year; if it is possible for us to complete the implementation of the
budget in six months from June, so be it; but that also requires that we
implement the budget properly because these are projects that are supposed to
bring development, relief and succour to Nigerians, and if it is not possible,
we shouldn’t force it on ourselves.”
Asked if he was satisfied with
the implementation of the 2017 budget so far, he said, “We are still working to
ensure that the implementation of the 2017 budget continues, so far it hasn’t
been able to be implemented the way we thought it would,” Lawan said.
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