Tension As National Assembly shifts 2018 budget approval to May

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The eight Assembly has revealed when the 2018 budget will be passsed
- The lawmakers said the budget will be approved in May 2018
- According to the chairman of the House of Representatives committee on appropriation, said the N2.06 trillion 2017 capital budget would run till May 31
The National Assembly has postponed the approval of this year’s budget till May 2018.
This is contrary to expectations that the 2018 budget estimates of N8.612 trillion would be passed by April.
Chairman, House Committee on Appropriations, Mustapha Dawaki, made this known at the 2018 National Budget Hearing in Abuja on Tuesday.
The hearing was jointly organised by the Senate and House Committees on Appropriation.
Dawaki, explained that if the budget was not passed by April 24 as assured by the Speaker, House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, then the N2.06 trillion 2017 capital budget would run till May 31.
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President Muhammadu Buhari had in his presentation of the 2018 appropriation bill to a joint session of the National Assembly on Nov. 7, 2017, called for speedy passage of the budget to allow for implementation of the January to December budget cycle.
Both legislative chambers had blamed the delay in the approval of the bill to refusal of heads of ministries, departments and agencies to come forward and defend their respective budget proposals.
The Nigerian Senate had blamed ministries, departments and agencies for the slow passage of the 2018 budget.
The lawmakers said the delay of the passage of the 2018 budget was due to ‘lackadaisical attitude’ of some heads of MDAs toward the ongoing budget defence.
They also the MDAs were not responding to the defence proposal and the Senate did not have much time on its hands.