N/Assembly Tackles Tinubu’s Economic Team Over 2025 Budget Proposal

The National Assembly has tackled President Bola Tinubu’s Economic Team over what it described as bloated recurrent expenditure over capital votes in the 2025 budget proposal.

The legislature expressed serious concern over huge discrepancies in the amount of recurrent expenditure at the expense of capital expenditure.

The legislature also observed the low fund releases for capital projects to the various economic sectors in the 2024 budget. The implementation of the 2024 budget will run till June 30, 2025.

This was what transpired between the joint Appropriation committees of the Senate and the House of Representatives during an interactive session on Wednesday with Tinubu’s Economic Team, led by the Minister of Finance, Wale Edun.

A statement issued late Wednesday by the Media Adviser to the chairman of the Senate Appropriation Committee, Kayode Odunaro, said the lawmakers frowned at the poor implementation of the 2024 budget.

The N49. 7 trillion 2025 budget proposal was presented to the legislature by Tinubu on December 18, 2024.

The National Assembly team was led by the chairmen of the Appropriation Committee of the Senate and the House of Representatives, Senator Olamilekan Solomon Adeola and Rep Abubakar Bichi respectively.

Others in the President’s team included the Minister of Budget and National Planning, Senator Atiku’s Bagudu; Minister of State for Finance, Dr. Doris Uzoka-Anite; Director General of the Budget Office, Dr. Tanimu Yakubu; and the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Finance and that of the ministry of Budget and National Planning.

The statement added that the lawmakers urged the Executive arm to ensure the release of adequate funds for capital projects in the 2024 budget which is still running.

This, according to them, is the only to serve Nigerians and make them feel the impact of the administration’s economic policies, stating that the huge recurrent expenditure only benefits a negligible segment of the population.

The statement further said the position of the National Assembly was informed by the report of the Presidential Economic Team, which showed.

The said report indicated that the 2024 budget performance was just 43 percent, with recurrent expenditure achieving 100 percent while capital expenditure was just 25 percent.

Chairman of the Senate Appropriation Committee, Senator Solomon stressed the need to drastically reduce the wide gap between recurrent expenditure and capital releases in budget cycles.

The statement said, “Capital releases to MDAs are the major drivers of economic activities within the nation. Non-release of funds for capital projects is a major issue in the performance of 2024 budget so far and it is desirable that funds are released to prevent abandoned projects and ensure the success of the Renewed Hope Agenda of the president.”

The statement quoted Senator Adeola as saying that it will not speak well of the MDAs to come for their 2025 budget defence with record of non-performance of their core mandates as contained in the poor record of capital budget performance.

The chairman of the House of Representatives Appropriation Committee, Rep Abubakar Bichi, was also quoted to have called for more releases for capital projects for schools, roads, dams, hospitals and other social infrastructure, instead of placing emphasis on debt repayment, which he argued, can be restructured.

“Most of the items of recurrent expenditure which takes a huge part of our budget and is implemented 100 per cent will only directly affect about 10 per cent of our population while capital projects of the MDAs will directly affect majority of over 200 million Nigerians in areas of social infrastructure provisions like hospitals, schools, roads and energy,” Bichi was quoted to have said.

The statement added that the Minister of Finance confirmed the outstanding in capital releases, blaming non availability of funds for the lapses.

The Minister of Budget and National Planning, Senator Abubakar Atiku Bagudu who was also part of the discussion, attributed the huge recurrent expenditure to nation’s low level of development and challenges confronting the nation.

He was quoted to have identified spendings on insecurity as reason for the huge recurrent expenditure.

On his part, the Director General of Budget Office, Dr. Tanimu Yakubu, also attributed the huge recurrent expenditure to past legacies inherited by President Bola Tinubu.

He identified unpaid pensions and gratuities which he said the administration has successfully addressed. Yabuku suggested legislation aimed at limiting recurrent expenditure in future budget cycles.

stressing that in the future there may be need for legislation by the National Assembly to limit the size of recurrent expenditure in the budget.

N/Assembly Tackles Tinubu’s Economic Team Over 2025 Budget Proposal is first published on The Whistler Newspaper