ENUGU, Nigeria (VOICE OF NAIJA)- President Bola Tinubu has assured that the student loan will commence in January 2024.
He gave the promise during the presentation of the 2024 Appropriation Bill before a joint session of the National Assembly in Abuja today, Wednesday.
The President said the 2024 budget tagged Budget of Renewed Hope will achieve job-rich economic growth.
According to him, the loan will address long-standing issues in the education sector with the student loan to begin in January.
Tinubu began the presentation of the N27.5 trillion Appropriation Bill at 11. 40 a.m. He promised that when passed, the government would start the implementation on 1 January, 2024.
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Meanwhile, before the arrival of Tinubu to the National Assembly complex, there was a high turnover of federal lawmakers at both the Senate and House of Representatives.
Before the commencement of the joint session for the budget presentation by Tinubu, the Senators attended the plenary of the House of Representatives.
According to tradition and parliamentary procedures, it is required that Senators should proceed to the chamber of the House of Representatives for the joint session from their own chamber. And they are not to go there individually.
However, contrary to the norms, some Senators went to the House of Representatives chamber ahead of the joint session out of ignorance. Their action left members of the House of Reps in the session baffled.
Apparently realising their mistakes, the Senators, including a very ranking one like Aliyu Wammako (APC Sokoto North) quickly ran out of the chamber to join their colleagues.
As Wammakko and others were hurrying back to the Senate, their colleagues from the Senate had suspended the plenary for the joint session. So they joined their colleague to return back to the House Chamber.
The error made by the senators was due to a lack of deep knowledge and understanding of legislative practices and procedures for such joint sittings. This must have been caused by the high turnover of new lawmakers always recorded every four years.