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The coast is now clear for the passage of the passage of the 2018 Appropriation bill, barring last minute changes. And as I earlier reported, Nigerians are watching with keen interest the hullaballoo coming from a cross section of members of House of Representatives and their Senate counterpart over the allegation leveled against President Muhammadu Buhari over the anticipatory approval of $496,374,470 equivalent to N151,394,421,335 for procurement of Super Tucano Aircfraft, into the 2018 budget, without the approval of the National Assembly. While some of the lawmakers from the ruling party, All Progressive Congress (APC) were of the opinion that the approval was in order and in tandem with the section 82 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended), however, other opposition lawmakers made strong argument that the President usurps the powers of the National Assembly for failing to secure approval before paying the fund into the US treasury. It’s quite an interesting scenario, because the issue as rightly pointed out by the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, was not envisaged by the framers of the Nigerian Constitution. I also recall Mr. Speaker informed the House that, the 2017 Appropriation Act’s lifespan which was passed in May 2017, has not elapsed. This invariable means, President Buhari’s request is still tenable on one side.
Meanwhile, Dogara who tried to be clever in banging the gavel and at crossroad as event unfolded that the situation at hand may snowball into another mega crisis, knowing full well the array of support he’s enjoying from the opposition lawmakers, submitted that “I don’t think as a matter of law, there’s a straight forward answer to this…yet on the other hand, we are duty bound to consider it,” mandated the House Committee on Rules and Business to do diligent search of precedence from other climes. Take it or leave it, the Speaker was on top of the situation! As it was during the sixth Assembly and the take-over of baton by Goodluck Jonathan from his ailing boss, President Musa Yar’Adua through the ‘doctrine of necessity’, similar situation may be considered to save President Buhari from this Constitutional crisis.
Without doubt, both parties are justified by the positions taken. But beyond the present predicament, there is need for further alteration of relevant sections of the Constitution, in addition to the recently passed Fourth Amendment to the 1999 Constitution.
According to the proposed amendment to section 82 of the Constitution, the National Assembly secured the support of 25 out of 36 State Houses of Assembly to “reduce the maximum period that a President or Governor my authorize the withdrawal of monies from the Consolidated Revenue Fund in the absence of an Appropriation Act from six months to three months. The House and indeed the National Assembly should send the Constitution amendment bill to the President for assent without further delay.
The opposition lawmakers however relied on section 80(1) which provides that “All revenues or other moneys raised or received by the Federation (not being revenues or other moneys payable under this Constitution or any Act of the National Assembly into any other public fund of the Federation established for a specific purpose) shall be paid into and form one Consolidated Revenue Fund of the Federation. (2) No moneys shall be withdrawn from the Consolidated Revenue Fund of the Federation except to meet expenditure that is charged upon the fund by this Constitution or where the issue of those moneys has been authorised by an Appropriation Act, Supplementary Appropriation Act or an Act passed in pursuance of section 81 of this Constitution.
(3) No moneys shall be withdrawn from any public fund of the Federation, other than the Consolidated Revenue Fund of the Federation, unless the issue of those moneys has been authorised by an Act of the National Assembly.
(4) No moneys shall be withdrawn from the Consolidated Revenue Fund or any other public fund of the Federation, except in the manner prescribed by the National Assembly.
Section 82 also provides that “If the Appropriation Bill in respect of any financial year has not been passed into law by the beginning of the financial year, the President may authorise the withdrawal of moneys in the Consolidated Revenue Fund of the Federation for the purpose of meeting expenditure necessary to carry on the services of the Government of the Federation for a period not exceeding months or until the coming into operation of the Appropriate Act, whichever is the earlier: Provided that the withdrawal in respect of any such period shall not exceed the amount authorised to be withdrawn from the Consolidated Revenue Fund of the Federation under the provisions of the Appropriation Act passed by the National Assembly for the corresponding period in the immediately preceding financial year, being an amount proportionate to the total amount so authorised for the immediately preceding financial year.
Meanwhile, the resolution passed by the House to investigate various conditions of service governing the tenure of public officers including political appointees, civil servants and chief executives of extra-ministerial departments, parastatals, bodies, agencies and other institutions of government, was long overdue. According to the resolution, the Ad-hoc Committee to be set up soon, will also beam its searchlight into public owned companies and corporations under the control of the Executive, Legislature and Judicial arms of the federal government of Nigeria.
The Ad-hoc Committee is also expected to further inquire into the operational costs of running the federal government of Nigeria, by whatever name including security votes, running costs, service wide votes, imprests, contingencies, etc, in compliance with Sections 88(1a & b) and 2(a & b) and 89(1a-d) and 2 of the 1999 constitution (as amended).
While I’m not too excited by the resolution, because the best of such investigations conducted by previous Assembly were either swept under the carpet(s) or were not implemented or the hunters became the hunted. Nigerians will keep watching how far the investigation will go!
