National Assembly fails to pass 2016 budget as promised

The National Assembly has dashed the expectation the 2016 budget would be passed this week.
At joint press briefing, March 2, the chairmen of Senate and House of Representatives Committees on Appropriations, Danjuma Goje and Abdulmumin Jubrin respectively, had said the budget report would be laid March 16 and passed March 17 after consideration.


“After all consultation with the leadership of the House and Senate we can confirm to you that all things being equal we should be able to lay our report of the 2016 Appropriation bill before the House and the Senate on the 16th of March and the consideration, hopefully should be done on the 17th.

“So it is safe for us to conclude that the 2016 Appropriation bill will be passed on the 17th of March 2016,” Mr. Jibrin had said.

The budget was not presented at either chamber on Wednesday as promised.
Addressing journalists after plenary, the Senate Leader, Ali Ndume, announced the postponement of the passage of the budget to next week.

He said the passed budget would be sent to President Muhammadu Buhari for assent before Easter.


He added that the budget report would be laid by the Mr. Goje tomorrow on Thursday while deliberations would hold Tuesday.
The president presented a N6.08 trillion 2016 Appropriation Bill, budget proposal, to a joint session of the National Assembly in December 2015.