The Senate will on Monday hold a first-of-its-kind public hearing on the
2017 Appropriation Bill submitted to the legislature by President
Muhammadu Buhari.
A statement by the Chairman, Senate Committee on Media and Public
Affairs, Senator Aliyu Sabi Abdullahi, the Public Hearing is aimed at
allowing stakeholders and members of the public to make contributions to
the proposed legislation before passage by the National Assembly.
Over
the past week, the Senate has suspended regular plenary sessions in
order to give all committees an opportunity to conduct adequate
oversight and for ministries, departments and agencies of the federal
government to defend the allocations included in the estimates submitted
to the legislature by President Muhammadu Buhari. The joint public
hearing, will push the budget defense a step further by allowing members
of the public to weigh-in constructively on ways to improve the
appropriations bill.
“This will be the first time something
like this is happening,” Abdullahi said, “It’s a testament to the
leadership and foresight of the Senate President, and the commitment of
the 8th Senate as a whole to ensure that the budget is passed
transparently — with adequate feedback from the general public.”
The
Senate President, Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki, stated that the historic
public hearing on the budget was aimed at ensuring more
citizen-participation in the legislative processes.
“We will
continue to create platforms such as these, that will allow the general
public to play a role in what we do here,” the Senate President said,
“Moving forward, the public can expect that we will continue this
practice of having an open budget hearing where every-day Nigerians are
primary contributors.”