President Bola Tinubu’s ₦58.47tn 2026 Appropriations Bill and changes to Nigeria’s electoral rules will be the main items on the National Assembly’s legislative agenda when it resumes plenary sessions today.
Senator Opeyemi Bamidele, the Senate’s leader, promised everyone that the 1999 Constitution would be finished and prepared for delivery to state legislatures by the first quarter of 2026 and that both the upper and lower chambers would accelerate the review process.
In a statement released in Abuja on Monday, Bamidele said that committees in both chambers had already begun thorough evaluations of the revenue and expenditure projections that President Tinubu had submitted to a joint session of the National Assembly on December 18, 2025.
“We will devote quality time to the scrutiny and passage of the 2026 Appropriations Bill valued at ₦58.47 trillion now that we have resumed plenary,” he declared. The revenue and spending estimates that President Bola Tinubu presented to the joint session of the National Assembly on December 18, 2025, are already being thoroughly examined by our committees in both houses.
“Given its emphasis on consolidating the gains of the previous years, the proposal is critical to the growth, prosperity, and stability of our economy this year and even beyond.”
He claimed that the budget will restore the January-to-December budget cycle, strengthen macroeconomic stability, increase Nigeria’s competitiveness internationally, and translate economic development into jobs, higher incomes, and better living standards.
When the budget eventually goes into effect, it will strengthen our shared commitment to ensuring the macroeconomic stability of our country, enhancing her competitiveness in the global market, and converting economic growth into respectable employment, higher wages, and improved living standards throughout the federation.
This will assist us in reestablishing and sustaining a yearly budget cycle that begins in January and concludes in December. Given the constraints we have already encountered, achieving these goals may be difficult, if not impossible,” the lawmaker said.
Recent fiscal measures, such as the passage of the 2025 Tax Reform Act, which Bamidele claimed had recalibrated the country’s fiscal space to lessen the tax burden on low-income earners while placing more responsibility on high-income earners, were connected to better funding prospects for the budget.
We have drastically changed our fiscal space to match our socioeconomic circumstances, in contrast to prior years. We think funding our budget will no longer be a problem as a result of the fiscal space changes, and our budget deficit will undoubtedly start to decrease yearly,” he stated.
In addition to the budget, the Senate Leader stated that in order to ensure reliable, transparent, and secure polling, the National Assembly was giving priority to changes to the Electoral Act prior to the 2027 general elections.
Voting rights for prisoners, early release of election funds to INEC, electronically generated voter identification, real-time transmission of polling unit results, standardized delegates for indirect primaries, more stringent voter registration requirements, and harsher penalties for electoral offenses are just a few of the more than 20 significant innovations he claimed were included in the proposed Electoral Bill, 2025.
“We are giving top priority to delivering an electoral governance structure that would ensure a transparent and credible process in the 2027 general elections, aside from the 2025 Appropriations Bill. To that aim, we have begun going over the Electoral Act, 2022, clause by clause.
“The Bill adds a system of repercussions to the electoral system in our country. When electoral offenses are proven, this clause eliminates the possibility of impunity, he pointed out.
Bamidele stated that technical sessions and public hearings on constitutional revisions had been completed and that the Deputy Senate President, Senator Barau I. Jibrin, will present the exercise’s report to the Senate prior to the conclusion of the first quarter.
Additionally, the 1999 Constitution review is at its height. Senator Barau Jibrin, the Senate’s Deputy President and Chairman of the Senate Committee on the Review of the 1999 Constitution, will present the exercise’s findings to the Senate before the first quarter ends, the Senate Leader promised.
He emphasized that at least two-thirds of the 36 state Houses of Assembly would need to approve the process’s final stage, highlighting the crucial role subnational legislatures play in enacting constitutional changes.
Bamidele pledged that parliamentarians will step up reforms pertaining to governance, elections, and economic diversification while reflecting on the 10th National Assembly’s 48-month term, noting that only 16 months left.
“At this extremely critical time, when events in other parts of the world now dictate the direction of our economy and polity, the onus rests much more upon us than at any time in history to reinforce our constituents’ trust in their representatives, in the National Assembly, and in their fatherland,” he stated.
