The Senate has postponed the passage of the 2019 Appropriation Bill to Tuesday.
Although the report by the Senate Committee on Appropriations on the
national budget was scheduled for consideration at the plenary on
Wednesday, the lawmakers resolved to postpone the third reading of the
bill.
The Majority Leader, Senator Ahmad Lawan, said the chairman and
vice-chairman of the committee on appropriations, Senators Danjuma Goje
and Sunny Ogbuoji, respectively, were not in the chamber for the
consideration of the budget report.
President of the Senate, Bukola Saraki, who presided over the session,
said the committee on appropriations was working towards making the
details of the budget available to lawmakers on Monday, ahead of the
passage of the budget on Tuesday.
Saraki said, “Some members have not got copies of the details and I
have directed the Clerk to make sure that latest by Monday we all have
copies so that everybody can see the details of the budget, and by so
doing we can pass it on Tuesday.
“We don’t want to run into a problem where we pass it without the
details and our colleagues will start to comment. So, Clerk, ensure that
everybody gets a copy of the details by Monday and we will pass it on
Tuesday.”
Our correspondent observed that though a report was also laid by the
committee on appropriations in the House of Representatives last week,
it was not listed on the Order Paper for consideration on Wednesday.
