Strong indications have emerged that President Bola Tinubu may present the 2025 budget to a joint session of the National Assembly in the first week of December this year.
Meanwhile, the Senate Committee on Finance, chaired by Senator Sani Musa (APC, Niger East), has clarified that the decision on when to present the 2025 budget lies solely with the executive arm of government, led by President Tinubu.
Journalists, concerned by the delay in receiving the vital budget document from the Presidency in November, queried Senator Musa over the weekend about the anticipated timeline for its presentation.
In response, Senator Musa emphasized that the responsibility rests with the executive branch and, by extension, not with the Senate or the National Assembly.
Senator Musa said, “The executive should be able to answer that question, because I know they are doing their work, they are working.
“As chairman of Senate Committee on Finance along with members of the committee, we have just interacted with the minister of finance, the Chief Executive Officer of Nigerian National Petroleum Company, NNPCL, and other top managers of the Nation’s economy on performance of the 2024 budget.
“They are definitely working on the 2025 budget and will forward it to us when work on it must have been completed. Decision on that lies with the executive and not us at the National Assembly.”
It will be recalled that as against tradition laid down during the 9th National Assembly in collaboration with the then President Muhammadu Buhari, the presentation of budget estimates for coming fiscal years, was always done in the first week of October of the proceeding year, after the required templates for that effect like Medium Term Expenditure Framework, MTEF, and Fiscal Strategy Paper, FSP, must have been presented for thorough scrutiny and dissection.
MTEF and FSP under Buhari were always received in the month of September for required engagements with relevant revenue generating agencies by committees on finance at both Chambers of the National Assembly.
Also recall that President Tinubu presented estimates for the 2024 budget to a joint session of the National Assembly on November 29, 2023, which delayed passage of it by both the Senate and the House of Representatives to December 30, 2023, and signing into law on January 1, 2024, by President Tinubu.
Meanwhile, both the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Finance and the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Wale Edun, have assured Nigerians after their interactive session weekend, that there was light already showing at the end of the tunnel of economic reforms of government.
Senator Musa said, “I believe in the assurance given by the Finance Minister that our economy is taking good shape through results from the reforms.
“For example, our debt to GDP ratio is decreasing and not increasing. The positive indices are already showing and within the next 16 to 18 months, Nigerians themselves will see the gains in practical terms.”