By Onuoha Ukeh
WHEN the
National Assembly passed the N6 trillion budget for 2016 and submitted same to
President Muhammadu Buhari, many Nigerians had heaved a sigh of relief,
thinking that the end of waiting for the legal instrument on spending money had
ended. Those who thought so were wrong, as this turned out to be the beginning
of a drama, which has held the country to ransom. First, President Buhari said
he would not assent to the budget until he got details therein. And when the
details were presented, he said he would study them before signing the budget
into law. After studying the details submitted, the president declined to sign
on the grounds that what the National Assembly approved was different from what
he proposed. Now at the end of the first quarter of the year and close to the
end of the first month in the second quarter, there is no budget.
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| *President Buhari presenting the 2016 Budget to the National Assembly |
Ordinarily, the budget for a
coming year ought to be passed and, perhaps, signed into law before the end of
the outgoing year or at best the first day or first week of the new year. If
the budget, for instance, is submitted in October of the out-going year and the
two houses of the National Assembly do their due diligence, by deliberating on
the document and passing it into law before the year ends, this target would be
on the verge of being met. And if the president receives the details of the
budget so passed, examines it and then assents, say before the year ends or the
first day/first week of the new year, the budget would be in place in the new
year. Had this happened, by now the 2016 budget would be running and the
economy would be a beehive of activities.
It is, indeed, sad that both
the Presidency and the National Assembly are playing politics with the budget
while Nigerians are suffering. Indeed, as the Executive and the Legislature are
standing up to each other, flexing muscle and trying to prove who is right,
Nigerians are in pain. At present, there is hunger in the land. Industries are
comatose. Foreign airlines are relocating their ticketing offices to neighbouring
Ghana
Of course, if, for instance,
funds for road construction are released to contractors, they would mobilise
staff to sites and get cracking with the jobs at optimal capacity.
Materials for construction would be bought and paid for. Workers at sites will
receive their daily pay and they will, in turn, finance their personal needs.
And the economy will bubble back to life. This may sound simplistic, but it
underlines the fact that little things matter. And from little things, greater
ones happen or are achieved.
To say the least, the impasse
between the Executive and the Legislature regarding the 2016 budget should not
have arisen in the first place if the two arms of government understand that
they are there to complement each other and not as rivals. It’s the duty of the
Executive to project income, propose expenditure and implement the budget. It
is the duty of the legislature to approve the proposal so submitted and give it
a legal backing. In doing this, there ought not to be an element of ego and
selfishness. This should be done with all sense of patriotism and nationalism.
I suspect that the problem is
that we have an executive, which appears to be suspicious of everything other
arms of government do. The executive of today believes that previous
governments did nothing to grow the country. It believes that officials of
previous governments were rogues. It believes that even other arms of
government of today have ulterior or sinister motives in doing some things. It
does not trust anybody. Also, the Legislature, on its part, has the tendency
for selfishness. This was exhibited in the 109 Sports Utility Vehicles
brouhaha. It shows in the fight for allocation of funds for constituency
projects. Also, the Legislature wants to assert its authority, knowing that the
power of the president, in the main, is derived, mostly, from the laws it
makes. With these parallel tendencies and idiocyncracies there is bound to be
conflict.
Yes, the Presidency has
proposed what it wants to do with the resources projected for the year. The
natural thing is that it would want this, as proposed. The Legislature,
exercising its duty as approving arm of government, also feels that it should
not be a rubber stamp (and should not), which would pass everything sent to it
without question or input. However, this is democracy, where it is not only the
will of the Presidency that is done but also the collective will of the
Executive, the Legislature and the Judiciary. No matter the good intention of
the Executive, there is the need for contributions of others, This is why there
is more than one arm of government.
However, inasmuch as I believe
that the National Assembly should not act as a robot or rubber stamp of
the Executive, which ratifies everything it receives, the legislators should,
in performing their duties, live above board, like Caesar’s wife. I do not have
anything against the National Assembly, realigning the budget, cutting proposed
expenditure or imcreasing same, but this should be done with an eye single to
the progress of all Nigerians. I do have a problem with realigning the budget
to suit the Legislature. We have had cases where lawmakers have realigned
allocations to service their constituency projects. I find this funny. In the
first place, the duty of lawmakers is to make laws for good governance.
Executing project, therefore, be it constituency project or whatever, is an
aberration. Lawmakers could lobby the executive or government parastatsls to
get projects sited in their constituencies, but having special allocations for
this is certainly out of place.
The Executive and Legislature
should be ashamed of themselves that close to the first half of the year there
is no budget. This makes it imperative that compromise should be reached to
resolve whatever issues therein. The two parties should not hold onto their
positions, as this would further worsen the already bad situation. Since
President Buhari has issues with what was passed as budget, he should send the
document back to the National Assembly. If he does not and the time frame for
him to make objection expires, the National Assembly would override his veto
and impose the budget on him. We should not wait for this to happen.
Everything should be done to
put the economy on the path of recovery and activity. Nigerians should know the
policy direction of the government in the area of the economy. How to make the
budget work should interest everybody. How to finance the budget should be
the issue now. What has happened to the money recovered by the Federal
Government from former government officials, who made refunds, should be the
matter now. The earlier the budget impasse is resolved for us to focus on other
things that would make government function well and boost socio-economic
development, the better for us. The time to do this is now.
*Mr. Ukeh could be reached with:
ooukeh@yahoo.com
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