The Senate on Monday will hold a public hearing on the 2017 Appropriation Bill submitted to it by President Muhammadu Buhari.

Chairman, Senate Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Senator Aliyu Sabi Abdullahi, in a statement said the public hearing would allow the public make contributions to the budget before it is passed.

The statement read in part, “Over the past week, the Senate has suspended regular plenary sessions in order to give all committees an opportunity to conduct adequate oversight and for ministries, departments and agencies of the Federal Government to defend the allocations included in the estimates submitted to the legislature by President Muhammadu Buhari.

“The joint public hearing will push the budget defence a step further by allowing members of the public to weigh in, constructively, on ways to improve the appropriations bill.”

Abdullahi added, “This will be the first time something like this is happening. It’s a testament to the leadership and foresight of the Senate President (Bukola Saraki) and the commitment of the 8th Senate as a whole to ensure that the budget is passed transparently — with adequate feedback from the general public.”

Senate President Bukola Saraki was also quoted to have said it was aimed at ensuring citizen-participation in the legislative processes.

He said, “We will continue to create platforms such as this that will allow the general public to play a role in what we do here. Moving forward, the public can expect that we will continue this practice of having an open budget hearing where every-day Nigerians are primary contributors.”

Azeez