NASS may pass 2025 budget this week -Yemi Adaramodu

The Chairman of the Senate Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Yemi Adaramodu, has given a hint about the possibility of the National Assembly approving the N49.7 trillion 2025 budget this week.

Adaramodu gave this hint while speaking to reporters in Abuja yesterday.

He hinged his optimism on the positive feedback being received from the Appropriation Committees of both the Senate and the House of Representatives.

Senator Adaramodu noted that consultations as well as requisite deliberations towards achieving this feat have already been done and that the Appropriations Committee of the Senate is likely to submit its final report as the Senate resumes on Tuesday.

Adaramodu said, “You know we are reconvening on the 4th, which is Tuesday. So when we convene, we will be expecting the reports.

“So issues that the reports would generate will determine the day the budget will be passed. It’s not going to be a graveyard silence.

“The report would be laid on the floor, and then we will ask questions from the Committee on Appropriation and the Committee on Finance.

“Thereafter the Senate would seek the concurrence of the House of Representatives and then the transmission to the presidency for assent.

“So, the Senate is expecting the report of the Committee on Appropriations on Tuesday.

“Immediately, it will be committed to the Committee of the Whole chamber, whereby we pick the budget clause by clause, almost line by line.”

“We may likely pass it, but it depends on so many variables, like the report of the Appropriations Committee and then the exhaustive debate that we will have on the budget report thereafter.

“We want to do this budget thoroughly so that we will not be going back and forth on all these supplementary. We want to be thorough. We want to be thorough with it.”

He was, however, noncommittal when asked if there was a likelihood of an increase of the N49.7 trillion proposed by President Bola Tinubu in the document he submitted for consideration.

The Senate Spokesman said, “Even if the budget is N100 trillion, agencies would still ask for further increases, but when we look at the merit of it, then as submitted in the report of the Appropriation Committee and that of Finance, you know even when we are dealing with the budget, we have to be mindful of the revenue to be generated by the federal government.”