Piqued by the reports that the National Assembly mutilated the 2016 budget, the Senate yesterday came hard on the Presidency, accusing the Muhammadu Buhari-led administration of setting Nigerians against the parliament.
The Senate stated that Buhari submitted “excessively flawed and chaotic versions of the budget proposal” that forced lawmakers to bend backwards to wring a coherent document out of the president’s version. It counselled the Presidency to own up to its failure in the budgeting process instead of engaging in surreptitious campaigns of calumny against the parliament “in order to cover up its serial errors.”
Chairman, Senate Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Aliyu Sabi Abdullahi, in a statement issued in Abuja yesterday, noted that it helped the executive to manage the hugely embarrassing situation “it has brought upon itself” and urged the Presidency to come clean with Nigerians on the 2016 Budget.
He said though the constitution empowers the executive to prepare and lay budget proposals to the National Assembly for approval, it is the constitutional responsibility of the legislature to allocate projects and appropriate funds for the execution of such projects.
He said: “While the executive is mandated to prepare and lay before the National Assembly a proposed budget detailing projects to be executed, it should be made clear that the responsibility and power of appropriation lies with the National Assembly. “If the presidency expects us to return the budget proposal to them without any adjustments, then some people must be living in a different era and probably have not come to terms with democracy.”
Top government officials had accused the National Assembly of altering the budget. Specifically the altered areas in the budget, which the presidency considers unacceptable, are funds proposed for key infrastructure projects, but which were either removed from the budget or slashed drastically by the National Assembly as shown in the details presented to the president.
One of the projects is the Coastal Railway project. Government was said to have earmarked N60 billion counterpart funds for it, but the National Assembly removed it completely from the budget details. But, the Senate regretted that the National Assembly had suffered series of blackmail since the inception of the 2016 budget process through distortion of facts by the Presidency, to poison the minds of Nigerians against the legislative institution.
It also accused the Presidency of lack of coordination and gross incompetence in the preparation of the 2016 budget, saying that the National Assembly refused to play to the gallery, but made so much sacrifice to cover the presidency’s embarrassment. His words: “Since the beginning of the 2016 budget process, it is clear that the National Assembly has suffered all manners of falsehood, deliberate distortion of facts, and outright blackmail, deliberately aimed at poisoning the minds of the people against the institution of the National Assembly.
“We have endured this with equanimity in the overall interest of Nigerians. Even when the original submission was surreptitiously swapped and we ended up having two versions of the budget, which was almost incomprehensible and heavily padded in a manner that betrays lack of coordination and gross incompetence, we refused to play to the gallery and, instead, helped the executive to manage the hugely embarrassing situation it has brought upon itself; but enough is enough. The Senate refuted the claims credited to the Minister of Transport, Mr. Rotimi Amaechi, that the National Assembly removed the Lagos-Calabar rail project from the budget, stating that the project was never captured in the draft proposal.
The lawmakers urged Amaechi to publicly apologise to the National Assembly for misinforming Nigerians on the Lagos-Calabar rail project or resign his appointment. The Senate stated that: “We make bold to say, however, that the said Lagos- Calabar rail project was not included in the budget proposal presented to the National Assembly by President Muhammadu Buhari and we challenge anyone who has any evidence to the contrary to present such to Nigerians.
“This latest antics of this particular Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, is reckless, uncalled for and dangerously divisive. Apart from setting the people of the southern part of the country against their northern compatriots, it potentially sets the people against their lawmakers from the concerned constituencies and sets the lawmakers against themselves. “This manner of reprehensible mischief has no place in a democracy.
We hereby demand from Mr. Amaechi a publicly tendered apology if he is not able to show evidence that the Lagos-Calabar road project was included in the budget. Otherwise, he should resign forthwith.” The Senate urged the president to start implementing the budget from the areas it was in agreement with the National Assembly without further delay, while the two arms work towards resolving the contentious areas of the money bill. He said that the more the president delayed the implementation of the budget, the more people suffering got aggravated. The parliament warned that the lawmakers, as primary representatives of the people, would not watch the electorate continue to suffer.
“Finally, by the provision of Section 81 (4) (a) and (b) of the constitution, the president is allowed to sign the budget and kickstart the implementation of the other areas that constitute over 90 per cent of the budget where there is agreement between both arms, even as we engage ourselves to resolve the contentious areas, if there were any. “We, therefore, maintain that even this contrived discrepancies are not sufficient excuse not to sign the budget into law.
“We, therefore, urge President Buhari to sign the 2016 budget without any further delay. For every additional day that the president withholds his assent from the bill, the hardship in the land, which is already becoming intolerable for the masses of our people, gets even more complicated. Certainly, as primary representatives of the people, we shall not vacate our responsibility and watch the people continue to suffer unduly.”
Meanwhile, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on National Assembly Matters (Senate), Senator Ita Enang, yesterday refuted the insinuations in the media that the president has rejected the 2016 budget as passed by the National Assembly. Enang told journalists in Abuja that media reports alleging that the budget had been rejected were false and misleading.
He said what Buhari did before travelling to China was to send the budget to ministries in order to get feedbacks that would inform his assent. “The president received the budget and convened an emergency Federal Executive Council meeting. “He gave each of the ministers, departments and agencies the opportunity to look at the details as submitted by the National Assembly.
“This is to enable him get opinion on the state of the budget to enable him take a decision. The exercise was conducted on Friday and it is ongoing by the different ministers and ministries,” he explained. Enang said Buhari had not exceeded the constitutional time frame to assent to the budget, adding that it should not be assumed that the budget had been rejected.
“The constitutional time frame for Mr. President’s receiving and considering the budget began last week Friday. The question has not arisen as to returning or otherwise. “But I want to say the best way we as liaison officers are handling this matter is to speak less and work more, creating interactions.
So, we will raise more interactions, consultations, and engagements. “There is nothing for the country to worry about, because we do not want to have crisis between the Executive and the Legislature, and it would not arise; this is one government,” he said.
