From the Lower Chamber

It was very interesting to hear the pronouncement of the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara that the 2016 Appropriation Act “in line with the provisions of Section 318 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 as amended” will run for a course of 12 months starting from the date it is assented into law. The essence of this concession/provision was to provide enough time for the Executive to implement the budget for the benefit of Nigerians.

This assurance from Mr. Speaker however, came with an explosive on the yet-to-be resolved crisis trailing the padding of this year’s Appropriation Act. For Mr. Speaker nothing has gone wrong with the process when any of the 360 members of the House of Representatives and the 109 Senators move figures around under the Zonal Constituency Project and other sectors of the economy to suit their yearnings. While admitting on one hand that the budgeting process was not open and transparent, he pointed finger at the Executive arm (public servants) of being responsible to nobody, yet (fix) figures and projects in the budget estimates.

“The integrity of the project selection process is the bane of the budget process. I ensured also that it reflected in this legislative agenda and this thing started long before we started this discussion on the 2016 budget process as to what happened wrongly or whatever happened.  Now, the reason why this thing is here is that when it comes to National Budget, who actually sits down to say these are the projects we will fund? Is the process open, is it transparent? Are the people responsible to anyone or it is that we just find these projects littered in the budget.

The answer is no but some people sit down in the budget office. Now, as civil societies, I want to achieve us to one thing, just take the budget, for instance, of a particular ministry, just check where the directors come from, or some of the officials come for, I wouldn’t want to mention their names, and look at their allocations in that ministry. It is all over. If you do that exercise, you will be shocked. And that is why we are calling to question, the integrity of that process. The Minister perhaps comes from a particular region and you will see up to 60, 70 percent of that ministry’s funds go to that place and in furtherance of our responsibility and duties as representatives of the people, you want to attract projects to those people,” a statement from the Speaker’s Media Adviser read in part.

The Speaker also argued that his constituency: Bogoro/Dass/Tafawa Balewa Constituency in Bauchi “don’t have a Perm Sec anywhere, we don’t have a director anywhere, so if you look at the 2016 Budget, if you were to go as proposed by the Executive, there is no single Federal- funded borehole, even if it is 50 naira, there is no 50 naira meant for any project in my 3 local governments. Why? Because I don’t have anybody where they are preparing, sharing or making allocation.”

For me, the submission of Mr. Speaker simply shows highest level of impunity in the political space, to the extent of granting “immunity by fiat” to himself and his co-travellers in the Legislative arm. Saying that no member of the National Assembly can be investigated or charged to court for performing their constitutional responsibility of lawmaking including budget, is uncalled for and align with the postulation that “absolute power corrupts absolutely.” I differ to say that no individual in the National Assembly is above the law and the spirit of checks and balances for the democracy stands for. This becomes necessary to check errors as glaringly displayed in the processes leading to the passage of the 2016 Appropriation Act.

As a Saint, he has put the task of oversight on the Civil Societies to “take the budget, for instance, of a particular ministry, just check where the directors come from, or some of the officials come for, I wouldn’t want to mention their names, and look at their allocations in that ministry.”

I wondered what Speaker Dogara meant when he stated that “recent efforts seeking to discredit the document (budget) are a consequence of inadequate knowledge of the legal framework governing appropriation in a presidential democracy.” Does it mean being a member of the House or Senate gives them the absolute knowledge governing the Constitution or a means to frighten Nigerians to believe they are being witch-hunted? While we keep vigil on the issue that will eventually play out since the police and other anti-graft agencies have been served petitions by the ‘circumstantial whistle-blower” – Abdulmumin Jibrin, the lessons drawn from the underhand activities of our representatives will determine what the future holds for us all. When the House reconvenes in the second week of September, never expect calmness from the warring members.