The 2016 budget yesterday received more knocks and accolades from Senators and members of the House of Representatives who expressed divergent opinions about the fiscal document presented to it by President Muhammadu Buhari last December.
Senate President Bukola Saraki and Speaker of the House Yakubu Dogara have unanimously but separately announced that the debate would pass for second reading today.
At the Senate, Saraki said the 2016 money bill would be concluded today and committed to relevant committees for further legislative action.
In her submission on the budget, Senator Oluremi Tinubu who described the document as “anti-woman,” expressed dissatisfaction that less than N4 billion was proposed for the entire Ministry of Women Affairs by President Buhari for the 2016 fiscal year.
Similarly, Senator Theodore Orji said that allocations made to infrastructure in the 2016 Budget is marred by inequalities.
Also speaking, Senator Samuel Anyanwu maintained that the Budget must be subjected to serious analysis.
Also picking holes in the budget estimates, Senator Samuel Anyanwu (PDP, Imo East), said the budget is nothing but a walking corpse going by its deficiencies in projections and allocations.
But the Deputy Chief Whip Francis Alimekhena (APC, Edo North), in his submission, described it as budget of hope.
Meanwhile, the House of Representatives has passed for the second time the 2016 appropriation bill amidst more criticisms from its members.
Dogara said the debate so far was illuminating and it should be a guide to the House in the perfection of the 2016 appropriation bill at the various committee stages.
Criticising the 2016 appropriation proposals, Minority Leader of the House, Leo Ogor said the document fell short of the Fiscal Responsibility Act of not attaching what will be voted for the CBN and other independent agencies.
But the House Leader, Femi Gbajabiamila countering Ogor’s claim in a point of order, said as long as the President fulfilled the constitutional requirements of laying the budget, the issue of the Fiscal Responsibility Act does not arise.
In his submission, Jibrin Abdulmumuni, Chairman, House Committee on Appropriations said, “various agencies in Finance ministry should step up action in the raising monies to fund the budget”
He called on the various committees to the House to take oversight of the various Ministries, Departments and Agencies, MDA seriously to make sure the budget is fully implemented.
-Leadership
