The
National Assembly
Senate President Bukola Saraki
has expressed the determination of the National Assembly to make the details of
its annual budget available to members of the public next week.
Saraki said the development
would be a departure from the tradition of having one line item budget by the
federal parliament.
The Senate President, according
to a statement by his Special Assistant on Public Affairs, Muhammed Isa, on
Sunday, stated this while hosting a team of editors from the London-based The
Economist newspaper.
He said, “For the first time,
we promised Nigerians to give out our budget breakdown. The committee will make
its report available by next week. We are resolved to break the tradition of
one line item.”
He also pledged to support the
President Muhammadu Buhari administration’s fight against corruption.
“Under my watch, the Senate
will never cover corruption except if the information didn’t come to us,” he
added.
Saraki stated that the Senate
was ready to partner Buhari to ensure the success of the anti-corruption war.
The Senate, he added, had
already demonstrated such commitment through its interventions in many alleged
corrupt transactions such as its swift investigation and adoption of a report
on the management of the Treasury Single Account that saved the nation about
N7bn.
He added that the upper chamber
exposed the inconsistencies in the 2016 budget.
The action, he said, was a
departure from the past where such reports were either watered down or not
presented for debate and adoption.
He cited the report he
presented to the seventh Senate on the over N1tn fuel subsidy scam that never
saw the light of the day, as an example.
Saraki noted that party
differences existed between the senators, citing the example of the leadership
tussle in the chamber. He, however, pledged that, national interest and the
desire of each senator to fulfil the promises made to Nigerians had become the
guiding principle of the lawmakers.
On the economy, he said the
Senate had embarked on a series of legislative interventions to create a conducive
environment for the private sector.
He stated, “It is only when the
private sector thrives that the issue of unemployment will be addressed and the
nation’s GDP will increase.”