Signs that presentation of 2025 budget to joint session of the National Assembly by President Bola Tinubu may happen in the first week of December this year, are gradually emerging as templates to that effect are not well laid yet, 10 days into November 2024 .
This is as the Senate through its Committee on Finance declared that decision on presentation of the 2025 budget strictly lies with the executive arm of government headed by President Tinubu.
It would be recalled that as against tradition laid down during the 9th National Assembly in collaboration with the then President Muhammadu Buhari, presentation of budget estimates for coming fiscal years, was always done in the first week of October of the proceeding year after required templates for that effect like the Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) and Fiscal Strategy Paper (FSP) must have been presented for thorough scrutiny and dissection.
MTEF and FSP under Buhari were always received in the month of September for required engagements with relevant revenue generating agencies by Committees on Finance at both chambers of the National Assembly .
Worried by the seeming delay on getting the vital document from the Presidency in the month of November, journalists on Friday last week asked the Chairman, Senate Committee on Finance, Senator Sani Musa (APC Niger East) on when the 2025 budget would be presented.
Senator Musa, in response to the question said decision on that lies with the executive and not the Senate and by extension, not the National Assembly.
“The executive should be able to answer that question, because I know they are doing their work, they are working.
“As chairman of Senate Committee on Finance, along with members of the committee, have just interacted with the Minister of Finance, the Chief Executive Officer of Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPCL) and other top managers of the nation’s economy on performance of the 2024 budget .
“They are definitely working on the 2025 budget and will forward it to us when work on it must have been completed . Decision on that lies with the executive and not us at the National Assemnly,” he said.
Recalled that President Tinubu presented estimates for 2024 budget to joint session of the National Assembly on Wednesday, November 29, 2023 which delayed passage of it by both the Senate and the House of Representatives to Saturday, December 30, 2023 and signing into law on January 1, 2024 by the President.
Even at the Executive level, there is no mention yet of the expected 2025-2027 Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) which would contain parameters upon which 2025 budget estimates would be based like the oil price benchmark, projected oil production per day, exchange rate of Naira to US dollar, inflation rate etc.
However, both the Chairman, Senate Committee on Finance and the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Mr. Wale Edun, assured Nigerians after their interactive session on Friday that ray of light is already showing at the end of tunnel of economic reforms of government .
Senator Musa said: “I believe in the assurance given by the Finance Minister that our economy is taking good shape through results from the reforms .
“For example, our debt to GDP ratio is decreasing and not Increasing. The positive indices are already showing and within the next 16 to 18 months, Nigerians themselves will see the gains in practical terms.”