President Bola Tinubu on Wednesday made a shocking remark during his presentation of the 2025 Appropriation Bill, titled “Budget of Restoration” to a joint session of the National Assembly.
During his presentation, the president referred to the current Assembly as the 11th National Assembly.
“In fulfillment of one of my constitutional duties and with unwavering commitment to rebuilding Nigeria towards ensuring that we remain steadfast on the journey to a prosperous future, I hereby present the 2025 budget to the joint section of the 11th National Assembly” | Punch
This caused an uproar among the legislators, pointing out to the president that it is the 10th Assembly.
When the attention of the president was called to this, Tinubu said, “10th? I wrote 11th.”
With an increase in the uproar in the house, President Tinubu added “It means you all are re-elected”.
Some lawmakers then rose on their fits and chanted in solidarity with the president “on your mandate we shall stand Bola!”
Tinubu Presented a budget to the tune of N47.9 trillion including N15.81 trillion for debt servicing for the 2025 fiscal year. He also added that a total of N13.0 trillion or 3.89 percent of GDP (Gross Domestic Product) will make up the budget deficit.
According to the President “the budget projects – inflation will decline from the current rate of 34.6 percent to 15 percent next year, while the exchange rate will improve approximately from N1700 per $1 to N1500 per $, and the base crude oil production assumption of 2.5 million barrels per day (mbpd).
Tinubu in his presentation said that the projections are based on reduced importation of petroleum products alongside increase in exports of finished petroleum products, bumper harvest driven by enhanced security, reduced reliance on food imputation, increasing foreign exchange inflows through foreign portfolio investments, higher crude oil output and export coupled with a substantial reduction in the upstream oil and gas production cost
He also highlighted the key aspects of the budget and their allocations: Defence and security – N4.91nr Infrastructure = N4.06tn, Health – N2.48tn and Education – N3.5tn
The President added that the 2025 budget is one of the restorations that seeks to consolidate the key policies that have been put in place by his administration to restructure the economy, boost human capital development, increase the volume of trade and investment, foster oil and gas production, revive the manufacturing sector and ultimately increase the competitiveness of the economy
