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The National Assembly, Thursday, for the first time, published the details of its budget, beginning with the 2017 budget, to underscore transparency as earlier promised by the President of the 8th Senate, Dr. Bukola Saraki.
Reacting to the recent landmark, some Nigerians who expressed their views on the internet hailed the law making body and its leadership, Senator Bukola Saraki and Hon. Yakubu Dogara for complying with their earnest call for #opennass.
Recall that Senate President, Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki, had earlier promised Nigerians that he’ll heed the calls for an Open National Assembly (#OpenNASS) in order to ensure everyone gets to see the line-item allocations of the legislative arm.
The Appropriations Committees of the Senate and the House of Representatives separately presented their harmonised reports of the budget for consideration and subsequent passage on Thursday.
According to the report, N434.4 billion was appropriated for statutory transfers to the National Judicial Council (N100 billion); Niger Delta Development Commission (N64.02 billion); Universal Basic Education (N95.2 billion); National Assembly (N125 billion); Public Complaints Commission (N4 billion); INEC (N45 billion); and National Human Rights Commission (N1.2 billion).
The seven establishments are to get allocations on first line charge. In practice, the spending details of these offices are not made public.
But the spokesperson for the Senate, Aliyu Abdullahi, told Journalists details of the National Assembly budget are included in the whole national budget, ending eight years of secrecy.
“We have opened our budget,” he said. “Details are in the (whole) budget, that’s what I have come to tell you.”