Budget Defence: Reps Read Riot Act To Ministers, Others

The House of Representatives has declared that all ministers and agency chief executives must appear before its relevant standing committees to defend their 2025 budget estimates. Failure to do so will be a mistake.

The House Committee on Appropriations Chairman, Hon Abubakar Kabir Bichi (APC, Kano), stated this while speaking with journalists after the panel met with the chairman of standing committees on Monday.

Bichi, earlier in an interview with journalists after the inaugural meeting of the Appropriations Committee, said the House would commence the 2025 budget defence session with Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) on Tuesday.

The Appropriation Committee chairman said President Bola Tinubu directed all the ministers and heads of agencies to appear for the budget defence, stressing that the legislature would decide what those who fail to turn up for the exercise get as budgetary allocations.

“We are commencing tomorrow to the 17th of this month, and we expect all the MDAs, ministers and chief executives to come out and defend their budget.

“Mr President directed them to show up so that we will know what they have done in 2024 and what they will do in 2025. If you don’t show up, that means you don’t have anything to say, so we can decide what you can come up with in your budget,” he said.

On the Public Accounts Committee’s recommendation that some MDAs be delisted from the 2025 budget due to infractions, Bichi said, “That is the essence of budget defence now. They are coming. We will ask them questions. If we are comfortable, we can allocate the money; if not, we can do otherwise.”

He told journalists that the budget defence would last until next Friday, and reports from the exercise may be harmonised on January 22. The Appropriations Committee’s report will be laid at plenary on January 31.

The chairman of the Appropriations Committee assured that the panel and standing committees will thoroughly defend the budget in the interest of Nigerians.

“We just had the inauguration meeting today for the 2025 Appropriation Bill, which you have been aware of. The President has presented the budget to us, and by tomorrow, we will start the budget defence with all the MDAs. From tomorrow to the 17th, we will do our budget defence and likely harmonise on the 22nd. God’s willing, by the 31st, we will lay our reports.

“We are going to study the budget; all our committees will study the budget. I believe the budget is for Nigerians, for our development – infrastructure and other important things, and I am sure Nigerians will be happy with it,” Bichi said.

LEADERSHIP reports that President Bola Tinubu presented the N49.74 trillion 2025 Budget (Appropriation Bill) before a joint session of the National Assembly on December 18, 2024.

Accordingly, the House passed the budget through a second reading on December 19, 2024. It was referred to the Appropriations Committee, with all Standing Committees as subcommittees, for further legislative action before adjourning plenary for last year.

The House is on Christmas and New Year’s holidays and will resume next Tuesday, January 14, 205.