The House
of Representatives on Wednesday began the debate into the general principle of
the 2020 Appropriation bill.
The ₦10.33
trillion budget was presented on Tuesday by President Muhammadu Buhari before a
joint session of the National Assembly.
The both
chambers of the assembly had earlier assured of passage before the end of the
year.
The members
of the house, however, began debate in a motion moved by the Leader of the
House, Rep. Ado Doguwa.
In his
contribution, Rep. Mohammed Monguno (APC-Borno) commended the Federal
Government for the allocation to the Agriculture sector and the North East
Development Commission (NEDC).
The
agriculture sector got ₦83 billion while the NEDC got ₦38 billion.
“Our
population is growing at geometric progression, and our ability to put food on
the table is growing at arithmetic progression and agriculture is the most
important way of solving unemployment.
“I am happy
that ₦83billion has been enmarked to agriculture, although we are far away from
Maputo Declaration on food security,” he said.
Also
speaking in support of the bill, Rep. Luke Onofiok (PDP-Akwa Ibom) commended Mr
President for his commitment to ensure the timely implementation of the budget.
Onofiok
also lauded the Federal Government for allocation to investments in sea ports
in the Niger Delta.
“I will
like to commend the President for bringing it in time, so that we can
implemennt the budget starting January.
“We are now
at the year 2020 we used to look at; we were promised infrastructure and
sustained growth in 2020, now we are moving to the year 2020.
“Of
importance is the increase in recurrent expenditure, which the president
explained is to take care of minimum wage, and funding of salaries of security
personnel,” he said.
The
lawmaker, however, expressed concern that the amount allocated to Debt Service
was more than what was allocated to Capital Expenditure.
The planned
Debt Service for 2020 was put at ₦2.45 trillion while Capital Expenditure was
₦2.14 trillion.
Also, Rep.
Salam Bamidele (PDP-Osun) urged the house to look at the possibility of
increasing the allocation to Social Investment from ₦30 billion to “at least
₦100 billion”.
Furthermore,
Rep. Rotimi Agunsoye (APC-Lagos) urged the National Population Census (NPC) to
conduct a new census, to ensure proper planning.
“I will
like to talk on population census, if we are planning, we must know the
population of the actual Nigerians.
“The last
census was in 2006, and we are 2019, we have been estimating our population; it
is important that we know the population, so that we can know our needs,” he
said.
Agunsoye
also expressed concern on the porous nature of the country’s borders.
The house,
however, suspended the budget debate till Thursday, Oct. 10.
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