President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan, has urged the Federal Government to ensure that the amended 2020 Budget estimates give adequate consideration to the needs of the downtrodden in the country.
He gave the charge on Thursday at an expanded meeting between the leadership of the National Assembly and a delegation led by the Minister of Finance, Zainab Ahmed.
The meeting at the instance of the Minister of Finance was meant to amend the N10.594 trillion 2020 budget passed by the National Assembly in December last year.
The meeting, held at the National Assembly with the President of the Senate presiding also had Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila and other principal officers of the National Assembly in attendance.
Recall that at the virtual meeting of the Federal Executive Council held on Wednesday, the budget estimate was reduced from its current N10.594 trillion to N10.523 trillion.
Some Nigerians including the former vice-president, Atiku Abubakar, had called on President Buhari to beam his searchlight on massive budgets cut in the executive and parliament and be generous with social expenditures on health, education and health services.
Lawan, in his opening remarks, insisted that the budget must be operable and favourable to Nigerians.
He said: “One thing is that the net public expenditure must be targeted at net maximum performance for the benefit of the people of this country. In other words, we must come up with an amended budget that is operable and favourable to Nigerians.”
He assured the Minister of Finance that the budget amendment would be given expeditious attention while advising Honourable Ahmed to liaise with relevant committees of the Senate and House of Representatives.
“The budget amendment is very important, but I believe that when we are faced with this kind of challenge (COVID-19 pandemic), it is an emergency and we should do everything and anything possible to fast track the passage and implementation of the government intervention that is so critical and crucial at this stage.
“I believe that we shouldn’t delay it any longer. Next week, and I will suggest the early part of next week, we should have that document(MTEF) ready so that we can consider it alongside the budget. It is supposed to be the tonic of what Nigerians are waiting for.
“We have listened to the various adjustments you have made to avoid going into recession. However, to avoid going into a deeper recession, I think we need to do a little bit much more.”
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