President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan has disclosed that the National Assembly is working hard to see to the passage of the 2021 Appropriation Bill by the second week of December, 2020.
He disclosed this while speaking at a retreat for top management staff of the National Assembly and National Assembly Service Commission on Friday in Abuja.
“We are working to pass the 2021 budget by the second week of December by the Grace of God,”
He said ” So far, we achieved that in the 2020 budget. We believe we did the right thing. We promised Nigerians that we will do that and it is going to be part of our legacy in the Ninth National Assembly.
Speaking on the PIB ,Lawan who said the bill is one of the most essential legislations in the country said work has commenced on it adding that the bill will be passed before the second quarter of 2021.
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He noted that the house is taking time to do a thorough job on the bill because of its sensitivity while assuring that what comes out of the bill eventually will be beneficial to the country.
” We are taking our time to do a thorough job on the bill because it is a very delicate and sensitive piece of legislation. We will take our time to ensure that what comes out of the National Assembly in the PIB is a product of legislation that will ensure that Nigeria earns it’s revenues from this industry as it should.
” What we are going to come out with will of course also support our business people, the oil companies that are investing and infact retain and encourage new ones to come to Nigeria to invest.
” Oil is like water now. Almost every country now has oil. So if you don’t provide a competitive environment in Nigeria, oil companies will have no difficulty relocating to other countries. So we will ensure that we have a competitive environment for business and for investment.
The Senate President gave an assurance that the National Assembly would have been done with the current process of the constitutional amendment by 2021 and also the Electoral Act (Amendment Bill).
” The constitutional amendment at the moment, is not very warm because of the activities on the 2021 budget but the two committees in the Senate and the House are already working behind the scene to ensure that as soon as we pass the budget, the activities will start in earnest.
“We believe that we should pass our ammendments within 2021. Similarly the ammendment to the Electoral Act is going to be within that year 2021 to ensure that we don’t encounter unnecessary distractions, he stated.
