Lawmakers fail again to pass 2018 budget

Few days to go in April, lawmakers in both chambers of the National Assembly has again failed to pass the N8.612 trillion 2018 budget on Tuesday April 24 despite promises by both leaders of the Assembly last month that they would pass the budget in April.

Recall that in March, Senate President Bukola Saraki had assured Nigerians that there would be no extension for the Appropriation Committee handling the budget in the senate.

“The Chairman Appropriation Committee should please ensure that by Friday this week, collections of reports from various committees’ ends. “There should be no more extension for that purpose because the appropriation committee itself, must submit its report to the Senate unfailingly next week”, Saraki had said in March.

Also the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara gave similar assurances, promising that the budget would be laid on April 19 and passed on April 24.

However, no issue regarding the budget was brought up in both the senate and the House of Representatives on Tuesday.

Prior to the announcement, President Muhammadu Buhari had given ministries, department and agencies a deadline to submit details of their budget estimate to the national assembly.

There had been complaints from the lawmakers that the MDAs were frustrating their efforts to pass the pass the budget in time.

Since December last year, different committees of the Senate have been working on the Budget, meeting with heads of ministries and agencies which defended their budgets, after presentation by President Muhammadu Buhari on November 7, 2017.