The Senate and House of Representatives on Thursday postponed the passage of the 2023 Appropriation Bill till December 28.
When the presentation and discussion of the budget report were not included in the Order Paper for the day’s parliamentary proceedings, it became apparent that the upper house was not prepared to enact the Bill as planned. According to The Nation.
After the session resumed, the lawmakers entered an executive session that lasted around 15 minutes.
Ola Awoniyi, the Special Adviser (Media) for Senate President Ahmad Lawan, released the following statement on his behalf: “Thursday was scheduled for us to receive and evaluate the report of our committee on appropriations for the 2023 Appropriations Bill.
However, for a variety of reasons, we are unable to obtain the committee’s report.
“The fundamental reason is that the Appropriation Bill had several issues when it was presented to the National Assembly.
“The flaws were quite clear and they were not simple to deal with when our committees on appropriations in the Senate and the House of Representatives tried to reconcile the figures of what we have done and what was given.
Consequently, our committees had to begin the process of first cleaning up the Bill.
Naturally, the executive arm was involved in that process as well because the issues originated there.
It was only finished on Wednesday, and because today, tomorrow, Saturday, and Sunday are all holiday celebration days, our committee secretariats are unable to finish processing the budget for us to take those days. It’s a holiday on Monday and Tuesday.
“As a result, we are only able to accept the report and review it on Wednesday, December 28, 2022. The earliest is the next week.
