Reps’ll ensure speedy passage of 2024 budget, says lawmaker

A member representing the Ibadan North Federal constituency in the House of Assembly, Adewale Akinremi, has assured Nigerians of the speedy passage of the 2024 Appropriation Bill submitted by President Bola Tinubu last week.

Akinremi described the budget as “well-detailed and realistic” in a statement he signed and made available to PUNCH Online on Monday in Abuja.

He said, “We at the National Assembly will work with relevant Ministries, Departments and Agencies of government to ensure that the budget is passed as early as possible for ordinary Nigerians to benefit.

“It is because of Nigerians that President Tinubu has taken into consideration areas of security, local job creation, macro-economic stability, investment environment optimisation, human capital development, poverty reduction and social security in the 2024 budget of renewed hope.”

The lawmaker also insisted that the President didn’t submit an empty box during the budget presentation last week and called on opposition parties to “stop misleading Nigerians.”

He described what he tagged as allegations of the President submitting an empty box as “childish and misrepresentation of facts.”

“President Tinubu’s analysis of the budget is well detailed, the first of its kind in recent times. What people don’t know is that Mr. President had earlier submitted a flash drive as a soft copy of the 2024 Budget, which is now being printed out in hard copies.

“As an old, experienced member, I fully understand the due process for submitting the budget, whether hard or soft copies. It is important that we allow the house to do their jobs in partnership with the relevant agencies,” he said.

On the allegations by a member of the opposition New Nigeria Peoples Party, Yusuf Galambi, who alleged on BBC Hausa last Friday that Tinubu only provided an empty document during his Wednesday budget presentation speech before the National Assembly, Akinyemi said, “Yes, there is right to criticise the government, but deliberately misinforming the public in the name of criticism is wrong, and we must discourage that as leaders in order not to heat the polity.”