President Muhammadu Buhari’s 2018 Budget presentation to a joint session of the National Assembly may have come and gone but its memories will linger for some time to come.
Obviously, the President returned from London stronger than he was prior to his last medical visit.
“One man’s meat,” they say, “is another man’s poison”. While the president’s supporters have rolled out the drums to celebrate how he kept lawmakers glued to their seats for over one hour while he stood up presenting the appropriation bill, thus confirming that he has fully recovered from his health challenges, the dreams of All Progressives Congress (APC) gladiators seeking to take over Buhari’s job in 2019 may have hit a brick wall. The likes of Senate President Bukola Saraki; former Vice President Atiku Abubakar; immediate past governor of Kano State and senator, Rabiu Kwankwaso; former Lagos State governor, Bola Tinubu; Kaduna State governor Nasir el-Rufai and a host of others had been tipped as having interest in the number one seat come 2019.
The timely intervention of the National Assembly leadership ensured that placard-carrying lawmakers who wanted to embarrass the President at the budget presentation by booing at him, shielded their swords at the eleventh hour.
At the forefront of senators calling for the President’s re-election are Senate Leader, Ahmad Lawan (APC, Yobe State) and Abu Ibrahim (APC, Katsina State), leader of the Buhari Support Group, which recently endorsed the President for the 2019 presidential poll.
Saraki seemed to have developed a penchant for taunting perceived political enemies and this he did effectively when he taunted his former party, the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), during his speech at the budget presentation where he urged the President to ‘lobby’ lawmakers and close ranks in order to drive policies of government.
In a veiled reference to the 16-year administration of PDP where ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) allegedly lobbied National Assembly members with ‘Ghana Must Go’ bags to enable them approve their respective budgets, the nation’s Number Three Citizen tasked the President not to lobby them ‘the PDP way’.
“I would like to advise and caution that there is no better time in this administration than now for a rigorous drive for good working relationship between the Executive and the Legislature. The passage of important Executive Bills that improve ‘ease of doing business’ is also dependent on this. So, Mr. President, the 469 members in this chamber are your true partners that will ensure the success of your administration in achieving its goals and objectives. So, lobby them (not the PDP way), close ranks and let them work for you”.
By urging Buhari to lobby lawmakers, Saraki is indirectly telling the President to be more democratic in his approach with National Assembly members. The recent lawmakers’ boycott of dinner with Buhari over security checks readily comes to mind.
Majority of lawmakers believe the President is entrapped in his cocoon, leaving his cabal to run the country. The leaked memos by the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Ibe Kachikwu; Head of Service of the Federation, Winifred Oyo-Ita and Kaduna State Governor, Nasir el-Rufai lend credence to this argument.
Beneath the smile to cameras, lies deep-seated hostility between members of the Eighth National Assembly and the Presidency. At the heart of the crisis is the refusal of the Executive to release N100 billion zonal intervention fund, popularly known as Constituency Projects in the 2017 budget.
They were captured under the N2.177 trillion capital spending plan for 2017, but the Executive arm of government has so far released only N436 billion for what it termed priority capital projects.
The legislators, consisting mainly of first timers in the federal parliament, are peeved that Buhari’s failure to implement the ‘mutually agreed’ constituency projects, will negatively affect their chances of seeking re-election in the 2019 exercise. Also, reports abound of senators and members of the House of Representatives who were pelted with stones, eggs and sachet water in their constituencies due to perceived neglect.
By his plea, the Senate President is tactically asking the President to fulfill his part of the bargain by implementing the ‘mutually agreed’ constituency projects dear to the hearts of lawmakers.
This was also why he did not give a firm commitment on the Executive’s request that the budget be passed by December 31st, 2017. He simply threw it back at the doorstep of the President by saying: “The early passage of the 2018 budget will depend on this good working relationship”.
With the National Assembly yet to approve the 2018 to 2020 Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) and Fiscal Strategy Paper (FSP), $5.5 foreign loan, N135.64 billion virement and approval of 2017 statutory budgets of federal agencies, this column believes that it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of the needle, than for the 2018 budget to be passed this year.
OWEDE AGBAJILEKE, Abuja
