Why NASS can’t rush 2025 budget passage — Senator

The Chairman of the Senate Committee on ICT and Cybercrime, Senator Shuaib Afolabi Salisu, has said the National Assembly has refused to rush the passage of the 2025 budget proposal in order to allow for thorough scrutiny.

Salisu said the lawmakers didn’t want to be encumbered by the January-December cycle which would not allow members to thoroughly go through the budget.

Daily Trust reports that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu had presented a budget of N49.7 trillion for the 2025 fiscal year to the National Assembly.

While presenting the budget details, President Tinubu said the 2025 appropriation was designed to ensure macro-economic stability, poverty reduction, promoting economic stability, developing human capital development and insecurity.

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But Salisu, while speaking with newsmen in Ilaro, Ogun State, at the annual New Year party of the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Appropriation, Senator Solomon Adeola, explained that the budget of about 3,000 pages presented by Tinubu required thorough scrutiny.

The senator, who is representing Ogun Central, admitted that there were challenges last year, but that the headwinds are “pathways to economic recovery and prosperity.”

Salisu said, “As members of the National Assembly, you will also notice that deliberately we didn’t rush the budget passage this year. We didn’t want to be encumbered by January-December cycle and therefore not have the opportunity to thoroughly go through the budget.

“I have a copy of the budget, it’s about 3,000 pages. So, we are going to look at it critically to ensure that resources are judiciously allocated and of course, the Southwest Development Commission will also get a good chunk of this budget.”

On his part, the Minister of State for Health and Social Welfare, Dr Iziaq Adekunle Salako, assured Nigerians that the government would continue to expand the level of health coverage, adding that Tinubu is committed to the Universal Health Coverage for all Nigerians of different strata of life.