House of Reps passes N7.44tn 2017 budget (updated).

The House of Representatives on Thursday passed the 2017 budget of N7. 44 trillion.

This was not after a rowdy session over an allocation of N51 billion to the office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF).

The Appropriation Bill which was presented to the joint session of both federal legislative chambers about five months ago by President Muhammadu Buhari was passed by the House after adopting the report from its appropriation committee.

Shortly after the commencement of the day’s business,  the plenary presided over by the Speaker,  Yakubu Dogara dissolved into a Committee of Supply to consider the report of the House Committees on Appropriation laid before it last Tuesday.

During a clause by clause consideration of the budget,  members supported all the sub-heads until it got to the N84.7 billion vote for the office of the Secretary of the Government of the Federation(SGF).

As soon the speaker announced the budget for the SGF,  there was protestations with members shouting “no, no, no”.

The Office of the SGF got a higher allocation than that of the State House which is N55, 726,156,557 for 2017.

However,  Dogara paused momentarily after which he explained that the office of the SGF budget is meant for all the agencies and departments under SGF. At this point,  the protestations reduced with more members shouting, “carried”.

After approval of the budget at the Committee reverted to plenary where the budget was passed, where the chairman Rules and Business,  Hon Emmanuel Oker -Jev moved for the suspension of relevant House rules to enable the House take the third reading of the Bill immediately.

Shortly before the passage of the budget,  Dogara said nothing must change in the document as passed by House, before it is sent to the President for his assent.

He noted that if anything must change,  it must be brought before the House. “Nothing must change in this document.  If anything must change,  it must be brought back to the House for approval. So as to maintain the integrity of the bill,” the speaker stated.

Earlier,  while moving for the consideration of report on the Appropriation Bill,  the chairman of the House Committee on Appropriation, Hon Mustapha Dawaki gave an insight into the budget.

He said although  the Executive proposed a crude oil benchmark of $42.50, the National Assembly approved $44.50.

He added that the federal legislature is in agreement with Executive on the proposal of the production of 2.2 million barrels of crude oil barrels per day and the exchange rate regime of N305/$.

According to him : “With the additional expected revenue from the increase in the benchmark price of crude oil, provision has been made form the under listed budgetary needs among others. This has increased the aggregate figure to N7,441, 175, 486,758.”

The Appropriation Committee chairman gave further details of the budget to include: Judgement debts ( Justice) N10 billion, Backlog of Corps Members allowances ( Youth) N13. 06 billion, Repairs of Abuja Airport runway ( Transport) N5.8 billion, Increase in personnel Cost ( 18 MDAs) N5.1 billion, UNESCO Assessed Contribution ( Education) N1.2 billion , Subscription to Shelter Afrique ( Power, Works & Housing) N3.6 billion.
Dawaki said others include: Economic Recovery and Growth Plan ERGP ( Service Wide) N2.5 billion, Amnesty Programme ( Service Wide) N10 billion, National Identity Management Commission (SGF) N5 billion, and Roads Nationwide ( Power, Works and Housing ) N25 billion.

In a related development, chairman House Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Abdulrazak Namdas has assured that the 2017 Appropriation Bill will be sent for presidential assent soon.

Speaking at the weekly briefing on activities of the House by his committee, Namdas said the N143 billion increase in the budget was due to the National Assembly increasing funding for capital projects.

He argued that lawmakers saw the need to jerk-up capital expenditure ‎as this would aid economic recovery.

On the negative reactions from members on the mentio