The National Assembly will continue plenary today following 25-day suspension.
The lawmakers had on December 20, 2018 adjourned plenary till January 16 days after getting the N8.8 Trillion 2019 spending plan from President Muhammadu Buhari.
Sources near the officials said that the feature of the present plenary will be the formal introduction of the 2019 Appropriation Bill to the two councils of the National Assembly by Senator Danjuma Goje (APC Gombe) and Hon. Mustapha Bala (APC Kano), Chairman of Senate and House Committee on Appropriations, individually.
A positioning Senator who might not have any desire to be named, told our journalist that once the Appropriation Bill is introduced under the steady gaze of the administrators, it will be alluded to the important advisory groups of both the Senate and House of Representatives to deal with.
That in essence means the Bill will pass the first reading today before being committed to second reading that will take the form of committee work during which time ministers and heads of parastatals will be expected to appear before the relevant committees to defend the budgetary allocations to their ministries and agencies.
With election about a month away, Senators and House members who got the re-election ticket of their respective parties may not be at plenary today because there are indications that some of them are still busy campaigning in their respective senatorial districts and federal constituencies.
This was confirmed by some of the legislative aides of the affected lawmakers who told Akelicious that their principals are still busy in their constituencies and may not be around for today’s plenary.
President Buhari had on December 19, 2018 presented the 2019 budget estimate of N8.83 trillion to the National Assembly with N305 billion being earmarked for fuel subsidy during the fiscal year.
The president who presented the budget proposal to the 469 members of the National Assembly at the House of Representatives Chambers said government would continue to subsidise fuel price so as to reduce the burden on the citizenry.