By Ezrel Tabiowo
Abuja
Sequel to the decision of the National Assembly to suspend passage of the 2016 budget due to discovery of errors and padding in the proposal, representatives of various Civil Societies Organisations, yesterday commended the move as being in the interest of the country.
The groups, which met yesterday with the leadership of the National Assembly and chairmen of the Senate committees, said by postponing the passage of the budget, NASS had saved the country from being shortchanged by enemies of progress who are in public offices to satisfy their personal interest.
Chairmen of the Appropriation Committees of both chambers of the federal parliament, Messrs Danjuma Goje (Senate) and Abdulmumin Jibrin (House of Representatives) who stated this at a news conference, did not give a new date for its passage.
During the meeting with the leadership of the National Assembly yesterday, the groups in their separate submissions identified some anomalies which they discovered on their own while scrutinising the fiscal document and expressed concern that the nation’s economy and infrastructure development would have remained stagnant if the budget was hurriedly passed.
On his part, President of the Senate, Bukola Saraki, said the involvement of the CSOs in the process of budget consideration was part of the fulfillment of its pledges to make all legislative activities of the National Assembly open to all Nigerians.
He said the interactive session would afford the National Assembly leadership to get the observations and input of the CSOs into the 2016 Appropriation Bill currently being considered by both chambers.
Saraki said the maiden edition of the interactive session was meant to create an opportunity for CSOs to contribute and align ideas with that of the National Assembly in passing an inclusive and implementable budget for all Nigerians.