House of Representatives has suspended all
plenary activities for two weeks.
The suspension was reached at Tuesday plenary presided by
Speaker Yakubu Dogara. The decision was to enable the House call for 2019
budget defence by Ministries, Departments and Agencies, MDAs of government.
Recall that the House had before the 2019 general elections
in February passed the budget to second reading to enable its standing
committees commence work on it. Recall also that the Medium Term Expenditure
Framework, MTEF is yet to be passed by the House.
It is a norm to pass the MTEF before working
on the budget. But the House shelved debates on the document to receive the
budget from President Muhammadu Buhari in December, 2018. However, report on
the document by House committees on Finance, Appropriations, and Aids, Loans
and Debt Management which was due for presentation was stalled by the absence
of the Chair, Hon. Ibrahim Babangida.
