To deepen democratic governance and strengthen public financial management, the Speaker of the House Of Representatives, Honourable Abbas Tajudeen has led the Citizens Town-hall On The 2024 Appropriation Bill in Abuja.
He said that the town hall provides a platform for direct engagement between legislators and citizens, focusing on matters related to the national budget.
“This is crucial to enhancing the transparency of government spending. It also allows the public to be more informed about how public funds are to be used and, by so doing, build greater trust in government institutions.
More importantly, however, this town-hall will allow the National Assembly to understand citizens’ needs better and explore ways to address them through the budget. The relevance of this interface is best understood within the larger context of diminished public trust in government institutions in Nigeria and all over Africa,” Honourable Abbas said.
He noted that the town hall meeting represented major steps in changing the narrative, as indicated in the Legislative Agenda of the People’s House.
“As such, we firmly commit to strengthening public engagement and seeking inputs into the budget process, starting with the pre-budget statement, executive budget proposal, budget debate through public hearings in the legislature, and implementation, monitoring, and reporting of the budget.
In the last few months, we have engaged various sections of civil society in some of our core activities, including analysis of the MTEF and sectoral debates. This forum demonstrates our willingness to introduce and support feedback mechanisms and seek public input in the 2024 Appropriation,” he said.
The Speaker however, pointed out that greater citizen engagement requires action not just by the legislature but more so by the Executive.
“The Nigeria National Action Plan (2017-2019) under the Open Government Partnership identified the Federal Ministry of Budget and National Planning as the lead institution, with other government organs and agencies and the civil society as support institutions. This places the burden for improving public participation in the budget largely on the Executive. Some of the ways to achieve this include regular publishing of MDA budgets and quarterly and annual budget implementation reports on their websites, annual publishing of a comprehensive citizen’s guide to the budget, conduct of annual citizen’s satisfaction survey and timely publication and dissemination of all key budget documents to facilitate citizens’ participation,”he stated.
Citizens participation
Honourable Abbas also said that the House of Representatives has taken the lead in facilitating greater citizens’ participation in the budget process, and challenged all MDAs to do the same.
“On our part, the House will review the Fiscal Responsibility Act 2007 to strengthen existing provisions to improve access to information and public consultation during all phases of the budget cycle. Specifically, we will amend the FRA to require and define public participation explicitly,” he noted.
He also said the twon hall meeting explains the power of the people to engage actively in governance and decision-making processes, as he invited all to closely examine the 2024 budget proposal as presented to the National Assembly.
He said the annual appropriation reflects the needs and aspirations of every Nigerian citizen, as many Nigerians are grappling with the challenges of soaring inflation.
“In August 2023, the headline inflation rate increased to 25.80% relative to the July 2023 headline inflation rate, which was 24.08%. The food inflation rate was 29.34% on a year-on-year basis, which was 6.22% points higher than the rate recorded in August 2022. Data from the National Bureau of Statistics also shows that transportation costs have soared due to the hike in the pump price of Premium Motor Spirit,”
Honourable Abbas also reassured all Nigerians that the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and the National Assembly are committed to addressing these hardships.
He said the top priorities of the 2024 Appropriation Bill, as stated by the President, are national security, local job creation and poverty reduction, which made the President to label the budget as the “Budget of Renewed Hope.”
He called on Nigerians to support the aspirations of the 2024 budget and suggest ways through which the National Assembly can strengthen the proposals to deliver better economic growth and development.
Lateefah Ibrahim
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