The physical presentation of proposed N19.76 trillion 2023 budget by President Muhammadu Buhari to the joint session of the National Assembly next month is not certain due to ongoing renovation of Senate and House of Representatives chambers.
Budget presentation usually takes place in the House of Representatives chamber. But the renovation work, which is expected to be completed in August 2023, has caused the relocation of the federal lawmakers to a makeshift chambers for plenary.
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The federal government had said that the renovation of the National Assembly complex will gulp N30.2 billion.
On Friday, Senate President Ahmad Lawan inspected the renovation work and said it is creating challenge of where to host Buhari.
“The Green Chamber of the House of Representatives normally used for such very important event is also being renovated. But that is going to be one of the issues that we are going to tackle immediately we resume,” Lawan said.
He also said that one of the urgent legislative assignment that would be carried out by the Senate on resumption next week is confirmation of Justice Olukayode Ariwoola as substantive Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN).
He said, “We have the confirmation of the Chief Justice of Nigeria already waiting. Recall that the President sent the request but that was a day before the Senate went on its annual summer recess.
“Therefore, this is going to be one of the first things we need to do to ensure that the acting capacity does not go beyond the required three months.
“The security of our country, the security of our people has always been of great concern to us and will remain so and at this point let me commend our Armed Forces and other security agencies for upping the game and doing better in the last one month or so.
“We hope that they will do better than that but I want to assure Nigerians that the National Assembly particularly the Senate will continue to support our security agencies and defence forces to fight for restoration of normalcy in our security situation in the country.
“Our economy is challenged. It’s our focus that we make sure that the economy works for all Nigerians regardless of their socio-economic status. We are optimistic that we will be able to pass a budget that will provide for better life for Nigerians. It has not been easy but nothing is impossible and no problem is insurmountable.
“We also have so many other issues of ensuring that the 2023 general elections, at the end, the kind of elections that everybody will say, well, I have won fairly or I have lost fairly.
“So we want to ensure that there is very credible elections that will be of integrity and we will support the INEC to the fullest to ensure that the 2023 general elections hold in such a manner that INEC does not lack anything, that Nigerians are able to exercise their franchise and at the end of the day, we will have new set of leaders to continue to lead our country.”
