National Assembly, Federal Budget and Appropriation in Nigeria’s Fourth Republic: 1999-2019
Article
The paper examines the role played by the legislature in the appropriation and budget process in Nigeria’s Fourth Republic from 1999 to 2019. Using data generated from primary source such as interview and reports and corroborated with scholarly work. It was found that the legislature has been actively engaged with the yearly budget since the inception of this democratic dispensation in 1999. However, delay in submission from executive and lack of speedy passage from the legislature are affecting the performance of budget over the years in the Nigeria’s democracy. Recently, there are changes in the budgetary process. Even though, budget implementation is still not more than 54% throughout the years. Critical among the issues responsible for the fiasco were; delay in preparation, submission and appropriation, cumbrous bureaucratic process of securing release of funds, poor implementation and above all corruption. Consequently, the paper suggested that constant monitoring, timely submission of the budget to the legislature, and discouragement of unnecessary lobbying of the National Assembly (NASS) by MDAs are way forward for increasing budgetary performance.