When President Muhammadu Buhari presented the 2018 budget to a joint session of the National Assembly on November 7 and called for speedy passage of the appropriation bill before December 31, 2017, I argued on this platform that this was unrealistic.
In my November 12 piece titled: “Lobbying lawmakers to pass 2018 budget by December 31,” I submitted that: “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”.
Although the MTEF and foreign loans were eventually approved, they were like a drop in the ocean, as other knotty issues that could have accelerated passage of the budget remained unresolved; one of which is a political solution.
Consequently, last week’s adjournment of plenary till January 16, 2018 without passage of the budget has vindicated my position.
The suspension of plenary by two weeks to enable Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) defend their budgets with respective committees yielded no positive fruit, as some lawmakers proceeded on retreat, while most heads of MDAs shunned the few standing committees that managed to hold budget defence.
What could have been a political solution canvassed by Senate President Bukola Saraki when he posited that “The early passage of the 2018 budget will depend on this good working relationship” between the Executive and the Legislature became a missed opportunity for both arms of government.
In addition, the December 12 verdict of the Abuja Division of the Court of Appeal which ruled that Saraki had a case to answer with respect to three of the 15 count charges at the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT), could reopen old wounds between the two arms of government.
It was therefore not surprising last week when lawmakers took turns to condemn the performance of the 2017 budget, describing it as empty.
Although President Muhammadu Buhari had in his budget presentation to a joint session of the National Assembly last month, called for passage of the budget by December 31, 2017 to return to a more predictable January to December budget cycle, lawmakers blamed its inability to approve the 2018 budget estimates in 2017 on poor implementation of the 2017 Appropriation Act on the Executive.
Besides threatening to suspend the consideration of 2018 budget until the 2017 budget attains over 60 percent performance, they suggested that until the budget attains the expected level of implementation, the 2018 budget should not be considered by the standing committees.
Not even Senate Leader, Ahmad Lawan, one of the proponents of Mr. President’s reelection, spared him.
In his contribution at the debate, he said: “When we suspended plenary for two weeks, the intention was to enable committees work. They are supposed to report progress in order to enable the Senate pass the budget before the end of the year or early next year.
“When we suspended plenary, it was with the idea that the committees will swing into action so we can have a tentative date to pass the budget. From what I have seen, we might run into troubled waters. If we have not appreciated what the problems are, it is important for Nigerians to come here and understand what the problem is.
“The template we are using will continue to create problems for us. It was created during the military era. The template cannot work in our country today. From reports we have had, it is obvious that we have problems. We need to know what the problems are. If we have a 2017 budget that has not been executed today and we are considering the 2018 budget, it means there is a problem.
“The President told us that the 2017 budget was going to achieve at least 40 percent performance. Today, that has not happened. We need to lay this issue and discuss it. Let us put the facts before the Executive and show Nigerians the difficulties we are facing.”
Other lawmakers who condemned the performance of the budget, said some Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) had only attained 15 to 20 percent performance, despite assurances that improvements will be made.
They claimed that a number of agencies are yet to get releases to pay salaries and fund recurrent components of the 2017 budget, despite claims by the Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun, that N750 billion had been released.
Budget defence will resume on January 9 2018, even as legal fireworks on the Senate President’s corruption trial takes centre stage.
OWEDE AGBAJILEKE, Abuja
