The December deadline given to National Assembly to pass the 2023 appropriation bill is under threat as Ministries, Agencies and Departments (MDAs) have refused to appear before the standing Committees of the senate and House of Representatives.
The senate on October 16 had adjourned plenary for two weeks to enable it engage the MDAs for the budget defense.
At least not less than 600 MDAs are expected to appear before the Committees, but as at Friday our check revealed that only Interior, Works and Housing, power and information and Culture have appeared for the consideration and defence of their budgets.
Other MDAs include Aviation, Federal Capital Territory ( FCT), Defence , Army , NDA, Human Rights, judiciary, Special Duty and Establishment.
The rest are Police, EFCC, Code of conduct, DSS, NIA, and sister agencies.
While no reasons were given by the MDAs, our sources in National Assembly confided that the casualty rate of the lawmakers who lost at the primaries and those not returning heading various Committees have shown less interest in the legislative activities as their will be no room for them to pad the budget.
Scheduled to appear before the appropriation Committee on Wednesday was Gas,upstream, down stream, Capital Market and integration but several hours after waiting for the meeting to commence in Room 224, the Chairman of the Appropriation Committee Senator Jibrin Barau (Kano), in a subtle threat had reminded the MDAs and the sub Committees of the implications of the delay in the passage of the Appropriation bill with dire consequences on the nation.
According to Barau ” The sub Committees have been given another chance to appear on Monday, if they failed to comply the main committee will be forced to do it’s job for them”
The appropriation Committee had earlier on Thursday query the senator Kabir Gaya Committee on Independent Electoral Commission (INEC) , for presenting a budget proposal that did not contain additional requests by the commission for the 2023 general elections.
