The House of Representatives at its plenary session of Wednesday, 11th November 2016 stepped down a motion seeking to conduct a People’s Public Session in all the Federal Constituencies on the 2017 budget. According to Hon. Oluwale Raji (APC: Lagos), sponsor of the motion, the Public session is intended to obtain input from constituents on the anticipated 2017 Budget.

Moving the motion, Hon. Raji stated that a Public session would make the budgetary process more transparent and inclusive since the Executive Arm of Government seldom obtains the input of citizens, which diminishes its impact. He also expressed concern over the Budget process being misconstrued by uninformed members of the public to the detriment of the National Assembly. Hon. Raji therefore urged the House of Representatives to mandate its Committee on Constituency Outreach to provide a framework to supervise the session.

However, speaking against the motion, Hon. Leo Ogor (PDP: Delta) explained that the proposal contradicted the constitutional provisions for budget preparation and implementation and as such could not be considered by House of Representatives. It is noteworthy that sections 59, 80 and 81 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) that deals with the procedure of passing Appropriation, Supplementary Bills and withdrawal from the Consolidated Revenue of the Federation do not require public sessions in its procedure. The motion was eventually stepped down after some lawmakers also spoke in in favor of Hon. Ogor’s position.