The frosty relationship between the Presidency and the National Assembly over the latter’s N4.7billion proposal for the purchase of cars for themselves, amidst the country’s economic downturn will assume a new dimension when the Assembly resumes next week.
Angered by the criticism of President Muhammadu Buhari at his maiden Presidential Media Chat where he carpeted the federal legislature for the proposal, it was learnt that both legislative chambers will summon the State House Permanent Secretary over the N3.6billion budgeted for cars for principal officers in the Presidency in the 2016 budget.
Recall that in the N6.08trillion 2016 budget submitted to the National Assembly last year, Buhari said his administration would borrow over N1.8trillion to finance the budget due to the tight finances of government.
There are however concerns over the rationale of the decision of the Presidency and the Legislature for planning to spend N8.3billion of taxpayers’ money on cars for themselves, in an economy with 75.9million unemployed citizens, according to the 2015 Third Quarter report by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).
It was gathered that the budget defence of the State House will be held behind closed doors, when the Senate and House of Representatives resume to consider the N6.08trillion budget next week.
An APC senator who spoke to BusinessDay on condition anonymity, likened the President’s outburst over the proposed N4.7billion for the purchase of cars for the 469 members to “a man who worries about a speck in his friend’s eye when there is a log in his own eye.”
The North Central senator who said the National Assembly would resist any attempt to intimidate the legislature from carrying out its duties, said President Buhari ought to show more respect for the principle of separation of powers.
The President disclosed that he would hold a closed-door meeting with National Assembly members on the issue, urging Nigerians to take the matter to court. He wondered why they would make such proposal, having collected N100billion as car loans after their inauguration on June 9 last year.
“If I can turn down N400m for vehicles in the Presidency, I think we don’t need new cars; we can manage the old ones because of the economy,” Buhari stated.
The Presidency has a vote of N3.6billion for unspecified BMW saloon cars in the 2016 budget; N189.1million for purchase of tyres for bulletproof and regular Mercedes Benz cars; N39.8million for the purchase of an unspecified number of 200 amps, 100 amps and 60 amps Mercedes Benz batteries for bulletproof vehicles; purchase of C-Caution triangles, fire-extinguishers and cables worth N27million amongst others.
Speaking on a live television programme monitored by BusinessDay, Chief Whip of the Senate, Sola Adeyeye, called for re-introduction of the “low profile” policy as initiated by former Head of State, Murtala Muhammad.
That, he said, was a period when Nigeria’s former leader rode in a Peugeot 504 and every other high profile government official followed suit by not using exotic cars.
The senator who represents Osun Central in the National Assembly, asked Nigerians to beam their searchlights on the Executive and Judicial arms of government, adding that they use more flashy vehicles than his.
“We once had a Republic where our Head of State rode a Peugeot 504 and gave us what he called ‘Operation Low Profile’. We must go back to that. A situation where you go to the streets of Abuja, everybody is riding an SUV, everybody is focusing on the Senators because 109 of them are the ones who are elected. Ask yourself, what type of cars are Ministers riding? What type of cars are the judges riding? What type of cars are the DGs of parastatals riding?
“My official car right now as Chief Whip of the Nigerian Senate is not as good as what the DG of many parastatals are riding? What we need to do is to say regardless of your position, let’s go back to Operation Low Profile.
