General News
Senate Fails to Pass N22.7trillion Ways and Means …adjourns to February 28 after Presidential / NASS elections
By Iyojo Ameh
The Senate did not pass the planned final consideration of the N22.7trillion Ways and Means Restructuring request forwarded to the national assembly by President Muhammadu Buhari in December , 2022 for expeditious consideration before it went on a month break .
Failure of the Senate to pass the N22.7trillion Ways and Means Restructuring request by President Buhari puts Nigeria at risk of incurring additional N1.
Indications that the Ways and Means will be jettisoned appeared when the request was neither listed on the Order Paper used for plenary on Wednesday nor mentioned by the Senate leader who is the Chairman of the Special Committee set up for that purpose.
The President of the Senate , Ahmad Lawan , had on Tuesday last week , declared that the Senate was ready to approve the request, provided required details of the spendings were made available by the Finance Minister , Zainab Ahmed and Governor of the Central Bank , Godwin Emefiele .
He said if not for Restructuring of N22.7trillion Ways and Means request , the Senate and by extension, the National Assembly would have adjourned plenary on Thursday last week till after the Presidential and National Assembly elections.
” We must have necessary information for passage of the N22.7trillion Ways and Means Restructuring request as time is not on our side in the Senate now in view of coming general elections .
” If there is need for the Senate to sit up to Friday ( last week) for thorough consideration and passage of the request , it will be done but the affected officials from the executive must also expedite action on provision of required information as regards documents authorising approval and disbursement of the monies totalling N22.7trillion”, he had said .
But the Senator Gobir led committee did not present any report for consideration by the Senate on Tuesday and Wednesday this week , making the Senate to adjourn without approving it as earlier planned .