The National Assembly on Thursday made history when it considered and approved President Bola Tinubu’s request to extend the implementation of the capital component of the N21.83trillion 2023 Appropriation Act and the N2.1trillion 2023 Supplementary Appropriation Act till 31st December 2024.

The extension of the implementation of the capital component of the 2023 Appropriation Act and the 2023 Supplementary Appropriation Act in essence means that the capital allocations of the 2023 Appropriation Act,

2023 Supplementary Appropriation Act and 2024 Appropriation Act will run concurrently till December 31, 2024.

The resolution of the Senate and House of Representatives followed their consideration of the request of President Tinubu urging them to approve a further extension.

A few minutes after the commencement of plenary on Tuesday and the introduction of the two bills by the Senate Leader and House Leader respectively, both chambers dissolved into an executive session to deliberate on the request from the President to extend the life span of the capital component of the 2023 budget and the 2023 supplementary budget to 31st December 2024.

The passage of the two bills will be the third time in the life span of the capital component of the 2023 budget and the 2023 supplementary budget will be extended.

Their life span was first extended to March 31, 2024 and later to June 30, 2024.

Senate President, Godswill Akpabio and Speaker Tajudeen Abass had read Tinubu’s letters of request in the Senate and House respectively during plenary.

Both the Senate Leader, Micheal Opeyemi Bamidele, and Leader of the House Professor Julius Ihonvbere moved separate motions urging the Senate and House respectively to suspend their relevant rules to enable consider the Bills expeditiously.

“You will recall that on Wednesday 20th March 2024, these Acts were amended to allow for exhaustive implementation of capital projects under the Acts to 30th June, 2024. The extension will expire on Sunday 30th June 2024 and many projects are yet to be completed,” Bamidele said in his lead debate.

Minority Leader, Abba Moro, supported the extension of the implementation of the capital components of the 2023 Appropriation Act and 2023 Supplementary Appropriation Act. Moro noted that there is a need for the extension of the budgets.

Senator Mohammed Ali Ndume (APC – Borno South) observed that the main reason for the extension was to allow the Federal Government to complete ongoing capital projects.

Senator Orji Kalu (APC – Abia North) said there were many uncompleted projects in different parts of the country.

He urged his colleagues to disregard criticism on the extension of the budgets.

Senator Abdul Ahmed Ningi (PDP, Bauchi Central) argued that the budgets should not be extended continuously.

He advised the lawmakers to ensure that the federal government implements the projects as contained in the approved budget.

Responding, Akpabio explained that the upper chamber will monitor the implementation of the capital component through oversight function.

“Implementation is left to the executive and oversight is left for the legislature,” Akpabio said.

Thereafter, the Bills titled: “A Bill for an Act to amend the 2023 Appropriation Act to further extend its implementation to 31st December, 2024 and for related matters, 2024 (SB. 489)” and “A Bill for an Act to amend the 2023 Supplementary Appropriation Act, to further extend its implementation to 31st December, 2024 and for related Matters, 2024 (SB. 488)” were read for first, second and third time and passed by the Senate.

Leading the debate on the two bills, House Leader Ihonvbere described them as straight forward saying they were aimed at ensuring the completion of all ongoing capital projects captured in the two documents.

But Minority Leader of the House, Kingsley Chinda, argued that while it is legally alright to extend the capital components of the budgets, it is morally wrong to have about four budgets running at the same time.

He argued that while the minority are not against completing capital projects in the budget, Nigerians are bound to ask questions on why the government should be extending the life-span of the 2023 budget and 2023 Supplementary budget.

Speaker Abbas Tajudeen appealed to members to allow the passage of the extension of the capital components of the 2023 budget and supplementary budget to allow for procurement of items contained in it which he said are more security-related items.

Despite the plea, the majority of the lawmakers appeared not comfortable with the request for extension of the implementation of the capital components of the budgets as they kept on shouting “No, no.”

Following the disagreement, Abbas asked that the House should go into an executive session for members to iron out issues before resuming consideration of the bills.

After the closed-door session, the majority of the lawmakers supported that the two bills be approved when they were put to voice vote by Speaker Abbas.

• Credit: thenationonlineng.net