The N28.77 trillion budget, which was passed by the Legislature on December 30, was signed into law by President Bola Tinubu on January 1.
The National Assembly share of the pie for its routine operations is N344.85 billion, up from the N197.93bn originally proposed by the Executive when the 2024 Appropriation Bill was laid on November 29 by Tinubu.
However, when all other planned expenditure tied to the National Assembly, including the N100bn for zonal intervention projects and votes for the completion of ongoing projects are put in the net, the legislature will draw up to N514bn from the budget this year, according to Statisense.
The approved N344.85bn passed by the Senate and the House of Representatives, apart from being the legislature’s highest share since 1999, also represents a 74 percent increase of the 2024 proposals.
Investigations showed that, following the known expenditure pattern in the National Assembly, the money will be rationed to the Senate; the House of Representatives; the National Assembly bureaucracy; the National Assembly Service Commission (NASC); the National Institute for Legislative and Democratic Studies (NILDS) ; and the National Assembly Budget & Research Office (NABRO).
Nigerian Tribune gathered from sourced documents, including infomedia, that the National Assembly’s budget was N2.2bn in 1999, rose to N29.5bn in 2000; and in 2002, it was N28.2bn before it dropped to N23.3bn in 2003.
The funding for the legislature and its affiliated bodies began a gradual rise again in 2004 when the budget increased to N34.7bn, followed by N55.4bn in 2005; but dropped to N45bn in 2006.
The budget climbed to N60bn in 2007; N73.7bn in 2008; N123bn in 2009; and N154bn in 2010.
Findings revealed that in 2011, due to public outcries over the perceived high cost of running the National Assembly, its budget dropped to N111bn, but rose again to N150bn the following year (2012).
Between 2012 and 2014, the National Assembly’s budget remained at N150bn, though another round of public outcries, scaled it down to N120bn in 2015; N115bn in 2016; and a rebound to N125bn in 2017.
Investigations by the Nigerian Tribune showed that, after a rise to N139.5bn in 2018, the budget dropped again to N128bn in 2019 and 2020 respectively.
It was further learnt that by 2021, the budget rose to N134bn; N139bn in 2022; and N228.1bn in 2023, excluding a separate supplementary appropriation of N70bn in 2023.
The 2024 figure of N344.85bn is the highest allocation to the National Assembly in the last 24 to 25 years.
The lawmakers have, however, routinely complained of low budgeting for the National Assembly each year, arguing that funding over the years has hardly been enough to cover the operations of the legislature and its bodies.
One top official speaking to the newspaper on the matter, noted that the problem since 1999 had been that Nigerians only understood funding for the National Assembly to mean the salaries and allowances of senators and members of the House of Representatives.
The senior official stated, “People often reduce the issue of funding of the National Assembly to allowances or salaries. For instance, they think this N334.85bn for 2024 is for salaries or allowances.
“They forget that the National Assembly is an arm of government; it has other bodies that draw money from the same source.
“There are countless legislative duties like oversight visits, investigative hearings, committee functions and so on.
“What about the bureaucracy of the National Assembly, which caters for about 4,000 employees? What about legislative aides? What about the National Assembly Service Commission? We have NILDS, you name it.”
The official added that the N334.85bn budgeted for 2024 would be about “1.16%” of the year’s federal budget, saying, “this is a drop of water in the ocean, considering the huge responsibilities vested on the legislature to execute.
“Yes, the money is big on paper, seeing that it’s the highest since 1999. But, in reality, it still hovers around the 1% allocation the National Assembly has always had for many years.
“If you check the Naira-Dollar exchange rate of today, you can indeed say that the National Assembly is far more underfunded now than 10-15 years ago; that is the reality”, the official told the Nigerian Tribune in Abuja on Wednesday.
The Chairman, Senate Committee on Appropriations, Sen. Adeola Olamilekan, while commenting on the size of this year’s budget, defended the additions made to the allocations of several government Ministries, Departments and Agencies, aside from the National Assembly.
He explained that this was to address the funding gaps in the budgets of the MDAs and fresh requests for upgrades forwarded by the executive, prior to passing the appropriation bill on December 30.
“Additions of over N1.2tn had to be made. For instance, the Judiciary was given an extra N171bn, and there is an approval of N100bn for the School Feeding Programme, among others,” he explained.
READ ALSO FROM NIGERIAN TRIBUNE
