The Presidency and NASS once again are set for another collision
path on the 2016 budget which is threatening to put pressure on the not
so cordial relationship between the two arms of government. The 2016
budget tagged the budget of change is proving to be a jinxed budget
going by the controversies surrounding the budget since it was laid by
President Muhammadu Buhari to a joint session of the National Assembly
in December last year. For the first time in the history of the nation, in a country where
the ridiculous seems to be the norm, the 2016 budget was declared
missing by the National Assembly. After a series of denials, accusations
and counter-accusations by both parties, the budget was found after the
Senate President, Bukola Saraki had accused the president andd special adviser on
Senate matters, Senator Ita Enang of being the culprit in chief in the
missing budget .
Political pundits posited that Enang was being used as a scapegoat in
the missing budget scandal as it was very unlikely that Enang will
withdraw the budget without the backing of some powerful forces in the
executive. The missing budget scandal put a dent on the relationship
between the Presidency and the National Assembly which was struggling to
fit into a resemblance of normalcy after the leadership saga that
rocked the National Assembly. It will be recalled that the emergence of Senator Saraki and Hon
Yakubu Dogara as Senate President and Speaker against the wishes of
their party, the National Assembly and the legislature were pitched
against each other.Although in the build up to the leadership elections
in the National Assembly, the President maintained neutrality and
declared that he is ready to work with whoever emerges as leaders of the
legislature. However, the emergence of Senator Ike Ekweremadu of the
opposition, PDP as the Deputy Senate President was seen as slap in the
face of the ruling party who see is emergence as the height of political
betrayal by the Senetors.
It’s instructive to note that relationships between the executive and
legislature in developed climes are often described as a cat and mouse
relationship as political pundits say that’s how democracy will thrive.
An ideal relationship between the two arms of government, observers say
is not healthy for the growth of democracy as the legislature is suppose
to always keep the executive on their toes through their oversight
functions.
However, the independence of the legislature is seen as a
mirage by keen observers of the polity as often the legislature is
often the “Ying” to the executive “Yang “ in the country. Monitors reveal that efforts were made by both parties to smoothen
the relationship between the 8th National Assembly and the Presidency
after the leadership saga. After some weeks, the efforts began to pay
off as the National Assembly began to enjoy some form of cordial
relationship with the Presidency. As Nigerians were coming to terms with the missing budget scandal,
the budget padding scandal dominated the media waves as it was
discovered that some suspicious allocations and projects were smuggled
into the budget. The budget padding scandal resulted to the federal
government relieved the Director General of the Budget of his duties
with President Buhari vowing to punish the perpetrators of the padding
scandal. After weeks of horsetrading, the National Assembly, last week passed a
N6.06 trillion 2016 budget into law, following a motion by the
Chairman, Joint Committee on Appropriations, Senator Danjuma Goje,
seconded by Senator Andy Uba, thus reducing the President’s proposal by
N17 billion. While the President proposed a budget of N6.07 trillion,
the National Assembly slashed it to N6.06trillion.
The highlight is as follows: N351bn for statutory transfers, N1.4trn
for debt service, N2.6trn for recurrent expenditure, and N1.5trn as
capital expenditure. The N17 billion reduction in the aggregate
expenditure of the budget was taken from overhead votes component of the
N2.65 trillion recurrent expenditure of the budget which has now been
reduced to N2.646 trillion. N2.2trillion fiscal deficit was retained.
Also retained, were the parameters of $38 per barrel oil price bench
mark for the budget, 2.2million barrels of oil production per day,
exchange rate of N197 to a US dollar and deficit GDP of 2.14 per cent. Nigerians heaved a sigh of relief when the budget was passed as then
can the change agenda Nigerians voted massively for begin to manifest. However, a new twist emerged during the week as it was discovered
that the 2016 budget which was passed by the National Assembly last week
has suffered another setback as the legislature sent highlights without
the budget details to the President .
The failure of the National Assembly to send the budget details has
put President Buhari in a spot and has for now withhold his assent to
the bill. A top Federal government source who spoke to selected journalist on
the condition of anonymity, disclosed that the President is withholding
his assent because he does not know what is contained in the details
and what adjustments the National Assembly must have made to the
proposal sent to them. The source said, “The President has just received the transmission of
the Appropriation Bill 2016 Budget from the National Assembly and is
very anxious to sign it into law, but the National Assembly only sent in
the highlights without the details of the budget. “As result, the President has been handicapped in signing the Bill
because he does not know what is contained in the details and what
adjustments the National Assembly must have made to the proposal sent to
them. “
“Although he is anxious to sign the document so that implementation
of the provisions could start immediately and ease the tension in the
economy and polity, he is afraid he may later discover, when the details
are sent, the what is contained therein is not implementable. “
According to the source, President Buhari wished the National
Assembly could send in the details speedily so that it could be
considered for assent. He also added that Ministers are also eager that the budget be signed
so they could start implementing their programmes, but they are unable
to push the President to sign what has been transmitted because they
also do not know what is contained in the details. “They are particularly worried that the year is gradually aging and
the provision of the law in respect of spending the previous year’s
budget is not helping matters because of the low Capital provision for
2015.”“Because of the low provision made last year for capital expenditure,
spending 50% of that provision for the first half of this year will
make no impact on provision of infrastructure. He also noted that the Budget Office cannot also work on the Budget
for implementation because it is the details, and not the highlights,
that they convert into implementable templates for the respective MDAs.
This development he contended ,confirms speculations that the
National Assembly either did not complete work on the budget or are
playing politics with the documents which affects the life of both the
country and its citizens. “The National Assembly may just have passed the bill to pass the buck
to the executive and escape the wrath of the public which was gradually
suspecting it of sabotage.” The passage of the budget may now be extended to next week as
President Buhari is attending the Nuclear Summit in Washington DC, and
is expected back on Sunday. Reacting to the allegations, Abdulmumin Jibrin, chairman, House of
Representatives committee on appropriation said the national assembly is
still working on the details of the 2016 budget even after passing it
last week. But in a statement on Wednesday, Jibrin said “there is nothing
abnormal” for the president to assent to the bill before receiving its
details. The lawmaker explained that there were inconsistencies and
anomalies in budget, hence the need for a thorough job to be done on it. “We wish to make the some clarifications, following media reports
suggesting that withholding of assent to the 2016 appropriation bill by
the presidency is due to the failure of the national assembly to send
the budget details to the presidency alongside the appropriation bill,”
Jibrin said. According to him ordinarily, the national assembly should not have
responded to the issues raised, but they are duty-bound to put the
issues into perspective and put records straights even though they doubt
very much if the presidency will issue such statement knowing full well
the challenges the budget has faced so far. He explained that the general public should note that the MTEF and 2016 budget proposal came to NASS very late. Jibrinn recalled that a lot of dust was raised over different
versions of the budget circulated in the national assembly. Further,
some ministers disowned the content of the budget during defence before
NASS. He contended that amid these inconsistencies and discrepancies, the
NASS had been deeply engrossed in perfecting the anomalies, ironing out
of the wrinkles and stretching the twists inherent in the 2016
appropriation bill. He said“In order for the nation to move forward and avoid stagnation
of administrative processes, the tradition is that the bill is passed
and forwarded to the presidency for assent, while the lawmakers continue
to work on the details. There is nothing abnormal about this practice
and yet nothing abnormal about a president assenting a budget before or
after seeing the details. In any case, the budget details are usually
sent within a week or two after passing the budget. “In view of the inconsistencies, errors, omissions and padding that
characterised the 2016 budget, it would be unpatriotic of NASS to
forward the budget details without being extra-careful, meticulous and
cautious in discharging its duties. This is to ensure we do not make
same mistake that the executive made. “The appropriation committee needs to scrutinise the original
proposal sent by the president vis-à-vis the reports of various standing
committees of the house of representatives and the senate to arrive at a
clean copy of the budget details. This will in no way affect any
envelop already passed or the aggregate expenditure. He reaffirmed that the NASS holds the president in high esteem and
will continue to support him adding that there were several instances
where they demonstrated their support to the present administrations in
the past. At the risk of sounding immodest, he further explained that the NASS
approved the President’s Special Advisers without hitch, approved
ministerial nominees without rancour, approved supplementary budget
without delay and displayed a rare show of patriotism in the receipt and
passage of the 2016 MTEF and budget. Jibrin argued that the 2016 budget is the most challenging budget the
NASS has ever passed in its recent history. Taking into account the
many controversies and omissions, particularly in NYSC, prisons,
pensions, personnel shortfalls, among others, the budget failed in many
respects to connect with the policy thrust of the government. “The NASS appropriation committees worked round the clock to address
some of the omissions, bring up to date allocations in the budget
towards the policy direction of Mr. President, particularly issues
relating to security, anti-corruption and economic diversification. “Given the foregoing efforts, it is therefore unfair for accusing
fingers to be pointed at NASS when the presidency defers or delays
assent to the budget. Nowhere in the world that a budget is presented to
the parliament, and expect it to be passed warts and all without
subjecting it to the rigours of scrutiny, debate and painstaking
processes and inputs of the parliament. Jibrin added that the NASS will continue to exercise its
constitutional duty of appropriation to the latter, while recognising
the President’s power to withhold assent, the NASS is also
constitutionally required and has power to veto saying But they don’t
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