Review… Another budget padding controversy looms

It is another budget season, and lawmakers from both chambers of the National Assembly, are going to be busy until the budget is passed.

In a matter of weeks, accusations and counter accusations are bound to fly in the air. For now, the Senate, is leading, but the gibes from lawmakers will not go unanswered without dignifying rebuttals from the Executive.

In 2016, the now suspended former chairman of Appropriation committee in the House of Representatives, Mr. Abdulmumini Jibrin, raised the alarm, when he accused the Speaker of the House, Mr. Yakubu Dogara and other principal officers of the lower legislative chamber of padding the 2016 budget.

When he first raised the alarm, no one took him seriously, until he started unleashing documents to back his claims. The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), soon got involved. Sadly, Jibrin got his fingers burnt in the end and the accusations were swept under the carpet.

The accuser became the hunted, and the guilty one as he was soon suspended by his colleagues, and sent in exile as it were, denying his constituency any contribution, or input in the activities of the House since his suspension.

During this face-off, the Senate kept a loud silence. But early in the year, the upper chamber joined the league of budget padders. This time, the accusations did not come from the parliament. A super Minister in charge of Works, Power and Housing, Mr. Babatunde Fashola, raised the alarm.

He lamented that the lawmakers while cutting his proposed budget for certain projects, had also inserted projects into the budget of his ministry, without his knowledge, or consent, and wondered why he was called to defend his ministry’s budgetary proposals, when they, the lawmakers had intentions of scaling it up to accommodate their own projects.

Fashola lamented, that “If after we have defended the budget and we have gone and the legislature unilaterally changed the budget, what is the purpose of deliberation? What I have in my budget now is primary health care centres, boreholes.

To these, spokesman for the House of Representatives, Abdulrazak Namdas, responded then.

Hear him: “We could not watch the country’s patrimony being unfairly skewed to one region or a few regions to the detriment of other states and geo-political zones.

“We need to remind Mr. Fashola that the national assembly is a national institution made up of members from all geo-political zones, they represent all tendencies, interests and ethnic nationalities.

“It has a responsibility also to ensure balance in the distribution of road projects and other developmental facilities.

“The proposal from Mr. President on the 2017 budget of the Ministry of Works, Power and Housing did not pass this test! This partly informed the intervention of National Assembly so that every region can be carried along in project allocation.”

Since the Senate was at the centre of the padding palaver, Senator Danjuma Goje, who was named by Fashola, responded harshly: “Fashola should know that he is dealing with the national assembly of Nigeria and not Lagos State House of Assembly.

“If the job is too much for him, if he cannot adjust, then he should do the honourable and needful thing. No amount of blackmail or propaganda by him will stop this national assembly from doing its duties in accordance with the provision of the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.”

Fashola wanted to have the last laugh. So, he responded again: “I think, first, that Goje’s language is unparliamentary and therefore not deserving of a reply. I need a better budget as a tool to do my work and that is why l am speaking out.

“In this context, it is left for Nigerians to then decide whether budgeting for constituency roads is more patriotic than budgeting to complete the Kano-Maiduguri Road that connects five states, the Lagos-Ibadan Road that connects three states and helps to move food, imported goods and fuel across the country; or the second Niger Bridge that connects the South-East and the South-West geopolitical zones of at least 11 states together.

“I will also leave Nigerians to judge whether it is more patriotic to budget for the Mambilla Power Project that will contribute to more power supply across Nigeria or reduce the budget to build street lights in legislative constituencies. It seems that it is Goje who needs a behavioural prescription about legislative function”.

Sequel to this, arguments were thrown up as to the legality or otherwise of lawmakers inserting projects into the nation’s budget, to be executed.

Read also: Saraki sends warning to ministers as 2018 Budget passes 2nd reading

The arguments had gone as far as the Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo hinting that the executive would approach the Supreme Court to interpret the section of the nation’s constitution that deals with such issues.

There were rum outs then, that the presidency had constituted a body of legal luminaries to test the constitution on this issue, and have it resolved once and for all.

However, it never went beyond the lips, as no such case was ever filed.

Pundits however, hold the view that the National Assembly has the constitutional rights to insert anything into the budget. Same reason they have been accused of making provisions for boreholes, townhalls and streetlights in places of bridges and primary healthcare centres.

The pundits believe that as long as lawmakers have the power of appropriation, they can do and undo. Others hold a contrary view.

“The only way to address this yearly face-off between the two arms of government is for the Executive to approach the court. They can get a judicial interpretation to determine if lawmakers can remove and add anything to the original budget proposal sent to it.

“Until this is settled, the circle will continue. The Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, is a lawyer and a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN). The Federal Executive Council has good lawyers. Let them take the lead and settle this rift once and for all.

“The court, which is the arm of government, should be able to interpret what the law is silent about. But it cannot unilaterally do this if the other two arms do not do the needful. Whether or not we want to accept it, budget padding will be here for a long time until those responsible, do the needful.

“And this must happen before the National Assembly passes the 2018 budget. We need to jettison the yearly ‘gentleman arrangement’ between the two arms. Let us put this behind us,” a political pundit, Victor Giwa offered.

Meanwhile, as the lawmakers get set to deliberate on the 2018 budget, many are expecting that the issues surrounding insertion of items in the budget will again rear its head.

Many Nigerians contend that the debates, and padding will know no end, if the arms of government do nothing to address it once and for all.

 

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