As Senate says Executive has final decision
There are indications that President Bola Tinubu may present the 2025 appropriation bill to the National Assembly in the first week of December, as the templates to the fiscal document are not well laid yet, ten days into November 2024.
This is as the Senate Committee on Finance, posited that decision on presentation of the 2025 budget is strictly the jurisdiction of the Executive arm of government, under the leadership of President Tinubu.
It would be recalled that as against tradition laid down during the 9th National Assembly in collaboration with the then President, Muhammadu Buhari, presentation of budget estimates for coming fiscal years, was always done in the first week of October of the proceeding year.
Again, it is pertinent to note that budget was usually presented to the joint session of the National Assembly, after required templates by the way of Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) and Fiscal Strategy Paper (FSP), must have been presented for comprehensive consideration and approval by bother Chambers of the apex Parliament.
Under the immediate past President, Buhari, MTEF and FSP were always received in the month of September for required engagements with relevant revenue generating agencies by committees on Finance at both Chambers of the National Assembly.
Inquisitive of the apparent delay in getting the vital document from the Presidency in the month of November, journalists on Friday last week asked the Chairman, Senate Committee on Finance, Senator Mohammed Sani Musa (APC, Niger East) on when the 2025 budget, would be presented.
Responding to the question, Senator Musa said that the decision on that lies within the jurisdiction of the Executive and not the Senate or by extension, the National Assembly.
“The Executive should be able to answer that question, because I know they are doing their work, they are working.
“As chairman of Senate Committee on Finance along with members of the Committee, have just interacted with the Minister of Finance, the Chief Executive Officer of Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPCL) and other top managers of the nation’s economy on performance of the 2024 budget.
“They are definitely working on the 2025 budget and will forward it to us when work on it, must have been completed. Decision on that lies with the executive and not us at the National Assemnly,” he said.
Recalled that President Tinubu presented estimates for 2024 budget to joint session of the National Assembly on Wednesday, November 29, 2023 which delayed passage of the estimates by both the Senate and the House of Representatives to Saturday, 30th December, 2023 and signing into law on January 1st , 2024 by President Tinubu.
Moreover, at the Executive level, there is no mention yet, of the expected 2025- 2027 Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) which would contain parameters upon which 2025 budget estimates would be based like the oil price benchmark, projected oil production per day, exchange rate of Naira to US dollar, Inflation rate etc.
However, both the Chairman, Senate Committee on Finance and the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Mr Wale Edun, assured Nigerians after their interactive session on Friday, that a ray of light was showing at the end of the tunnel of economic reforms of government.
Senator Musa said: “I believe in the assurance given by the Finance Minister that our economy is taking good shape through results from the reforms.
“For example, our debt to GDP ratio is decreasing and not Increasing. The positive indices are already showing and within the next 16 to 18 months, Nigerians themselves will see the gains in practical terms”.
