The Federal Capital Territory 2025 budget of N1.783 trillion passed through first and secondary reading in the Senate on Wednesday.
The budget, which was presented by the Senate Leader, Michael Opeyemi Bamidele sought for the legislative debate to enable appropriation of the amount proposed, given that the Senate serves as the State House of Assembly with powers to legislate for the FCT.
The lawmaker said the figure covered capital and recurrent expenditure proposals with details of sectoral allocation.
Bamidele laid the FCT budget proposal for first reading after which the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio called for the second reading against the observation raised by Senator Abdul Ningi representing Bauchi Central Senatorial District, citing relevant provisions.
Ningi observed that copies of the FCT budget have just been distributed against the provision that Senators must have prior notice of the bill which copies must have been distributed early enough for their study before bringing the proposal for legislative debate.
He, however, was overruled by the Senate President for “urgency of time”;;.
Speaking on the proposal, Senator Adamu Aliero representing Kebbi Central Senatorial District drew the attention of the Red Chamber to the fact that the influx of people posed a serious challenge to the infrastructure.
“He said the original master plan of the FCT was supposed to be 750,000 people, but unfortunately every citizen has the right to live and work in the FCT and nobody can oppose their living in the FCT,”;; he said.
Abdul Ningi representing Bauchi Central Senatorial District praised the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike for the massive infrastructural development in FCT.
On a lighter note, he said: “Mr Senate President, our party, PDP is a development driven party and you can see that Nyesom Wike who is a PDP man is doing well in terms of infrastructure.
“Remember that you were a product of PDP and since APC took over, development has slowed down.”;;
Having supported the proposal, Ningi urged Senators to support the bill to enable the continued development of FCT.
Other speakers on the budget supported the proposed and commended the Minister for his commitment to the development of the Federal Capital Territory.
In his remark, Senate President Godswill Akpabio expressed his belief that the approval of the budget will strengthen the effort of the Minister and passed it for second reading after a voice vote.
The proposal was referred to the Senate Committee on FCT to revert in a week’s time.
