Again National Assembly fails to lay 2016 budget

The two chambers of the National Assembly Thursday reneged on their promise to lay the 2016 budget preparatory to its consideration and passage on Tuesday. It became clear that the budget might not be laid as promised when it was not listed in the Order Paper of the Senate and House of Representatives. Chairman, Senate Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Senator Aliyu Sabi Abdullahi, had told reporters that the budget would be laid Thursday. That was not to be as no mention of the Appropriation Bill was made during Senate plenary Thursday. At a joint press briefing by the two chambers, the lawmakers claimed that the need to “sit down and check what we call data cleansing and integration” made them to back down on the promise to lay the fiscal document.