From Ndubuisi Orji, Abuja
Deputy Spokesperson of the House of Representatives Philip Agbese has lauded the leadership, as well as members of the House, for the speedy passage of the 2024 budget.
Agbase, in a statement, said the speaker, Tajudeen Abbas, deputy speaker, Benjamin Kalu, chairman of the Appropriation Committee, Abubakar Bichi, have kept their promise to sustain the January to December budget cycle.
He recalled that the House had adjourned plenary for three weeks to enable various Committees interfaced with relevant agencies and scrutinised the 2024 budget estimates.
Agbese, while hailing members for turning out for the special plenary on Saturday, during which the budget was passed, said “the 10th House is known for creating discomfort for its Members, in other to make Nigerians comfortable. This is the People’s House and I’m glad the People are better off with the kind of leadership being provided here.
” At a point, we were almost going to spend our Christmas celebrations in the office. We had to suspend the House rules and were coming to the National Assembly on non-working days (weekends) and many times staying back at non-office hours.
The deputy spokesperson, who represents Ado/Okpokwu/Ogbadibo Federal Constituency of Benue State, also hailed the decision of the Bichi-led Appropriation Committee for allocating the differential N1.27 trillion to the capital component rather than recurrent expenditure.
“This is a good decision. This is the first time the capital component of the nation’s budget is bigger than recurrent”, he added.