The people-focused 2023 supplemental budget that President Bola Tinubu suggested was passed by the House Committee on Appropriations, led by Abubakar Kabir Bichi, and the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Tajudeen Abbas, have been praised by a National Assembly Support Group.The group said in a statement that the expedited hearing, defense, and approval of the N2.176 trillion budget—which President Tinubu signed into law on Wednesday—was the result of Speaker Abbas and Chairman Bichi's dedication.
The group also observed that the House demonstrated its sensitivity to the plights of Nigerians and its commitment to Nigeria's interests under Abbas and the Bichi-led Appropriations Committee.
The group added that the House of Representatives expeditiously approved the request to make cash available to meet the security and infrastructural demands, as well as the hardships faced by Nigerians, in light of the budget's urgency.
The group also remembered that President Tinubu had written on Tuesday of last week, asking for the supplementary appropriations bill (budget) to be passed as soon as possible to allow the federal government to fund other projects and other palliative measures.
On the same day, the House of Representatives enacted the executive bill, sometimes known as the budget, and forwarded it to the Committee on Appropriations for additional legislative action.
The Minister of Works, David Umahi; the Minister of Defense, Abubakar Badaru; the Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Abubakar Kyari; the Director General of the Department of State Service, Yusuf Bichi; the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike; and all of the Service Chiefs were present during the budget defense held by the Appropriations Committee on Wednesday.
Bichi and his colleagues put forth a great deal of effort to ensure that the report was ready for the parliament to study, lay out, and approve on Thursday. After that, the Committee put in endless hours to coordinate with the Senate and send the bill to the President, who on Thursday signed it.
The group also noted that the Appropriations Committee tinkered with the budget by shifting cash to the areas that were in urgent need of attention, showing that they were genuinely concerned about real issues that were upsetting Nigerians.
For example, the Ministry of Defence had roughly N456 billion, but they gave it the highest part because of how vital security is. They also boosted student loans from the N5 billion the administration requested to N10 billion. The budget was raised to N546,209,099,671 billion from N456 billion.
"The Office of National Security was given a N50 billion budget after its original N29 billion allocation was made. The company said, "Service wide votes were originally N615 billion but were reduced to N515 billion."
Speaker Abbas and Chairman Bichi were praised by the group for their vision and dedication to serving the Nigerian people.