By Favour Goodness
The National Assembly will not pass the 2022 Appropriation Bill this week, it was learnt on Wednesday.
According to the timetable for budget defence by the Senate, the report of the Budget was scheduled to be laid at plenary on Tuesday and Wednesday to be passed on Thursday.
This was not the case on Wednesday as the Senate adjourned the plenary till December 21 without the budget being laid.
The Chairman, Senate Committee on Appropriation, Jibrin Barau, said the development became necessary because the budget of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), which is critical to the conduct of the 2023 general election, has not been captured in the proposal.
It was learnt that the Chairman of INEC, Prof Mahmood Yakubu, is presently out of the country, hence his inability to defend his proposal before the appropriation committee.
Prof Zuru Abdulraheen Abdul, who represented the INEC chairman at a session organised by the Appropriation Committee on Wednesday, said the INEC boss is the only one that can provide the full details of the agency’s budget for 2022.
It was also learnt that aside from the budget proposal of INEC, that of the National Population Commission (NPC) is also being awaited by the Senate.
