The House of Representatives Committee on Appropriation will, on Thursdsy, lay the report of the budget defence on the N2.177trillion before the House for passage into law.
Chairman of the House Committee on Appropriation, Hon. Abubakar Bichi (APC, Kano) said that the relevant Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs), had been duly invited to defend and shed more light on their submissions.
Bichi stated that at the end of the hearing, the committee would collate its analysis in a report and submit it to the house.
Already, some members of the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s cabinet and the chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Professor Mahmood Yakubu defended their shares of the N2.177 trillion budget before the House Committee on Appropriation.
Bichi said that the N2,176,791,286,033 Supplementary Appropriation Bill sent to the National Assembly earlier this week was specifically structured to improve the nation’s security, food security and critical road infrastructure sectors.
Bichi also said that it was equally targeted at bridging the housing deficit in the country, including slum upgrades and urban renewal.
According to Bichi; “It will also support the provisional wage to workers and cash transfers to vulnerable Nigerians. It will also cater to the upcoming off-cycle elections in Kogi, Bayelsa, and Imo States.
“Out of 476,543,847,421 proposed for the Ministry of Defence, the sum of N215,937,945,659 is for recurrent expenditure while N260,605,901,762 is for capital expenditure.
“Out of total sum of N200 billion proposed for the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security, N104.800 billion is for recurrent expenditure while the sum of N95.200 billion is for capital expenditure.
“From the N50 billion proposed for Police Formations and Commands, N29,661,660,269 is for recurrent expenditure while N20,338,339,731 is for capital expenditure.
“Similarly, out of N29,700,606,916 proposed for the office of the National Security Adviser, N27,402,410,057 is for recurrent expenditure while the sum of N2,298,196,859 is for capital expenditure.
“The sum of N100 billion was also proposed for the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCT) while N49,046,831,697 is for Department of State Services (DSS); N28 billion is for State House; N300 billion is for Federal Ministry of Works; N100 billion is for Federal Ministry of Housing; N615 billion is for Service Wide Vote; N210.500 is for Capital supplementation; while N18 billion is for the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC),” he said.
Bichi explained that the Committee divided the Budget defence into two sections, saying that it would start with those of non-security agencies before going into the Security Agencies.
Also speaking, the House Committee Chairman on FCT, Hon. Muktar Aliyu Betara observed that out of the N300 billion requested by the FCT administration, only the N100 billion request was submitted by the executive arm of government for approval by parliament.
Betera, however, assured that the balance of N200 billion will be captured and considered during the 2024 budget defence.
On his part, INEC Chairman, Professor Mahmood Yakubu, noted that a lot of Nigerians will not believe that within four months after the inauguration of the National and State Assemblies, there already exit 11 vacancies have occurred, adding that it required 11 by-elections in four months. According to Yakubu; “Unfortunately, the majority coming from the House of Representatives. There are five vacancies in the House of Representatives. Two caused by death and three caused by the resignation of honourable members.
“We have vacancies in four state constituencies across the country and two senatorial districts and each time we conduct three senatorial by-elections, it’s like conducting a governorship election because each state in Nigeria has only three senatorial districts.
“So, we have to make provisions for the conduct of by-election in 11 constituencies made up of five federal constituencies, four state constituencies, and two senatorial districts, and for that we have appropriation for N1.6 billion.
“This is in summary of breakdown for the N18 billion for personnel emolument and overhead for augmentation for the conduct of the three off cycle governorship election and for the conduct of 11 by-elections, hoping and praying that there will be no by-election again so that we just confine ourselves to the 11,” he said.
Ministers who appeared before the Committee on Appropriation included those of Works, Senator David Umahi; Defence – Alhaji Abubakar Badaru, Agriculture and Food Security – Alhaji Abubakar Kyari, Director General, Department of State Services, Yusuf Bichi, FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike and Service Chiefs, among others.
Tag: Supplementary Budget, Reps Appropriation Committee, Report
