Doguwa Gives Reasons For Upward Review of NASS Budget

A member of the House of Representatives, Alhassan Doguwa, has said that the National Assembly is not the only government institution whose budget was upwardly reviewed in the 2024 budget recently passed by the lawmakers and eventually signed by President Bola Tinubu.

The 2024 budget was increased to the sum of ₦28.7 trillion from the initial ₦27.5 trillion presented by the President to the National Assembly in November.

Doguwa, who is the Chairman House Committee on Petroleum Upstream, said that others like the Ministries of Defence, Police Affairs, Agriculture and Health also saw their budgets raised by the legislators.

The lawmaker representing Doguwa/TudunWada Federal Constituency from Kano State said, “What was budgeted for NASS by Mr President was slightly lower than what we have finally passed into law.

“Of course, for very obvious operational and institutional reasons, we also reconsidered budgeted funds for other agencies of government like the Ministry of Defence, the Police Affairs, Ministry of Agriculture, the Health Ministry.”

Further justifying the increase of the National Assembly budget, the Kano federal lawmaker noted that what was budgeted for the National Assembly was not only meant for the elected members alone but other institutions that made up the legislative arm of the government.

“It is not for the 109 Senators in the Senate, it’s not also for the 360 members of the House of Representatives. A budget for the National Assembly is a holistic and lump sum budget for the institutions, departments and sectoral creations in what we call the National Assembly of the Federal Republic of Nigeria,” he said.