From Okwe Obi, Abuja
As the National Assembly begins deliberation on passage of the 2022 budgetary appropriation, Conscience Nigeria has passed a vote of confidence in the leadership of the House.
Its General Secretary, Hussein Muhammad, in a statement, on Sunday, appealed to Nigerians to be calm and allow the lawmakers, do their job before castigating the provisions in the proposed budget.
This is even as Muhammad christened the allegation made my Senator Dino Melaye on the budgeting system in Nigeria as “laughable to say the least.”
According to him, “As patriotic, decent and responsible Civil Society Organization, we have painstakingly studied the statement and observed deliberate inaccuracies against the House Committee on Finance in the House of Representatives and Federal Inland Revenue Service(FIRS).
“We have invariably concluded that rather than make any sense, the statement merely succeeded in exposing ignorance of budget passage in the National Assembly.
“The budget in question, submitted to the House of Representatives Committee on Finance by the Federal Inland Revenue service has yet to be approved, which means a critical review of the budget is currently going on by the House committee as is the usual practice in the past as well.
“On our part, we have always monitored the strict compliance of the House Committee on Finance to Budgetary processes and has no doubt as to the Committee’s sense of patriotism and fairness.
“It is important to educate the general public not to be sway by that statement.”
