Reps Commence Town Hall Meeting On 2024 Budget

House of Representatives lawmakers have commenced the Citizens’ Town Hall meeting on the 2024 budget and appropriation in Abuja.

Naija News understands that the gathering, organized by the House Committee on Appropriation and the Programmes Coordinating Unit under the Office of the Speaker of Representatives, witnessed the presence of numerous notable individuals.

Among those present were the Chairman of the Appropriation Committee, Kabir Abubakar, and his deputy, Iduma Enwo, and also the former National Secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Iyiola Omisore, alongside other distinguished personalities.

Kabir, in his opening remarks, expressed that the objective of the assembly was to increase the participation of citizens in the allocation procedure.

“This Town Hall is important in promoting the integrity of the budgeting process,” he said.

‘Stop Misleading Nigerians’ – Lawmaker Reveals Tinubu’s Analysis Of 2024 Budget

Meanwhile, a member representing the Ibadan North Federal constituency in the House of Assembly, Adewale Akinremi, has insisted that President Bola Tinubu didn’t submit an empty box during the budget presentation last week and called on opposition parties to “stop misleading Nigerians.”

Naija News reports that Akinremi, in a statement signed and made available to journalists on Monday in Abuja, described the allegations of the President submitting an empty budger box as “childish and misrepresentation of facts.”

The lawmaker argued that the budget was well-detailed, realistic and the first of its kind in recent times, stressing that Tinubu had earlier submitted a flash drive as a soft copy of the 2024 budget, which is being printed out in hard copies.

Akinremi further assured Nigerians of the speedy passage of the 2024 Appropriation Bill.

He said, “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. We must allow the house to do its job in partnership with the relevant agencies.

“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 optimization, human capital development, poverty reduction, and social security in the 2024 budget of renewed hope.”

On the allegations by a member of the opposition New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), 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 criticize 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.”