President Muhammadu Buhari has written to the House of Representatives asking to be granted leave to address a joint session of the National Assembly and present the 2018 budget proposal on November 7, at 2:00 pm. Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, read the President’s letter amidst vocally dissenting voices.
Several lawmakers shouted down the letter while the Speaker read. Dogara, who was obviously caught unawares by the reaction, reminded his colleagues that they could not constitutionally turn down the presentation of the budget proposal by the President.
The planned presenation is an imporvement on the preceding year’s which was presented to the NASS in December 2016. The budget was then not passed until May 2017 and then signed into law a month after in June.
The Executive will be looking to avoid the pitfalls which dragged the 2017 budget and have the national assembly pass the 2018 budget on time.
