The legislative arm of government as claimed that the current budgetary allocation prescribed it in the 2017 budget has ‘led to many challenges’. Some o the challenges cited include delays in the payment of lawmakers’ wages, months of unpaid salaries of legislative aides and the inability of lawmakers to travel for international summits as frequently as their predecessors.
According to reports from Sun News, a reliable source among the legislators claimed that the current N115 billion allocated it would be increased to a benchmark N150 billion to ensure that that they can meet their financial obligations.
When justifying the need for an upward review, the lawmaker claimed that if the judiciary could have its budget reviewed upwards, then the legislature also had the right to review its budget upwards.
The budget to the National Assembly has remained a subject of controversy with the legislature getting N150 billion from 2011 to 2015. Despite the reduction of the allocation to N115 billion in 2016 following public criticism, Senate President Bukola Saraki, in response to calls for a transparency, promised to give a breakdown of National Assembly budget in May, but he was yet to do so.