Baring any last minute change, both chambers of the National Assembly will pass the 2018 budget. Ceteris paribus (all other things being equal), the budget estimate should become an Appropriation Act before the end of January, 2018.
Once that happens, the yearly circle of passing ambitious budgets that are never implemented will continue. But it was not always like this. Moderate budgets were passed during the ‘tempestuous’ rein of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the implementation of capital projects was commendable. Since the current change happened in May 2015, it has been from one excuse to another. First, budgets were submitted late. This also led to their late passage. Next was budget padding brouhaha which became a national anthem. Avoidable delays in signing the budget into law became the next big thing. The biggest hullabaloo is the flagrant non-and-selective implementation of capital projects by the Executive arm.
President Muhammadu Buhari inherited the 2015 budget from the administration of President Goodluck Jonathan. No one could have blamed him. But he has however presented two budget estimates to the National Assembly since he assumed office. Unless you do not live in Nigeria, you will agree that the implementation of Buhari’s two budgets have been unbelievably abysmal.
The 2016 budget performance was below 60 per cent. The performance of the current budget, in terms of capital releases, is less than 30 per cent. According to the Minister of Finance, Mrs Kemi Adeosun, only N450 billion has so far been released by the Federal Government.
What that means is that, less than $1.5 billion has been released to fund capital projects in a country of more than 180 million people. That figure is less than the budget of one monotechnic in the United States of America. Sadly, the so called giant of Africa is unperturbed. The thrust of this piece, is to x-ray the poor performance of our national budgets every year and take a position on how the National Assembly, specifically the Senate can intervene. I will quote research-based facts and cite different sections of the Constitution to make an informed conclusion on how to steer this wheel, going forward.
The function of the National Assembly is categorised into three parts, namely, law making, representation and oversight. In Nigeria, our Constitution is clear. It gives express recognition to the operation of the principle of separation of powers among the three arms of government. Specifically, Section 4 of the Constitution vests legislative powers of the Federation and States on the National Assembly and the various State Houses of Assembly.
Section 5 of the constitution gives the Executive powers of the Federation and States to the Presidents and Governors of each state respectively. In the same vein, Section 6 of the same 1999 constitution, as amended, vests the judicial powers on the Supreme Court of Nigeria and other constitutional courts of the land.
Checks and balances are put in place to stop one arm of government from becoming too authoritarian. This is where the Senate comes in. Fortunately for it, the Senate can do and undo. It can check both the Executive and the Judicial arms of government. Constitutionally, no other arm can directly check the activities of the Senate.
There are however concerns on whether or not the Senate has performed this constitutional role satisfactorily. Many Nigerians hold the view that the flagrant non-implementation of our yearly budgets, is as a result of the poor oversight of Ministries, Departments and Agencies of the Federal Government.
At least, the President of the Senate, Bukola Saraki, agrees with this argument put forward by Nigerians. In February this year, Saraki, while giving nod to the Senate committees on Petroleum Resources (Upstream and Downstream) and Gas to conduct a public hearing on the alleged misappropriation of over N10 trillion subsidy funds by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), said the National Assembly was not doing enough in the area of oversight.
He said investigations carried out by anti-graft agencies over frequent misappropriation of fund, was because the National Assembly was not effectively carrying out its oversight functions. Was Saraki’s statement an indictment? You be the judge.
Again, I need to extensively quote Saraki. Since he assumed office, he has made different remarks at different fora on the issue of oversight. Let me take you through the journey.
In 2016, Saraki addressed State House Correspondents, soon after President Buhari signed that year’s budget into law. During the interaction, he promised to up the ante of the Senate and ensure that proper oversight was carried out by lawmakers.
Hear him: “On our own part as members of the National Assembly, we will closely monitor the implementation of the budget (2016) by providing effective oversight. We will also ensure that all necessary laws that will aid the transformation of the contents of the budget into practical policies, projects and programmes that will directly have positive impact on Nigerians will be put in place. That is why we have started the amendment of the Public Procurement Act to ensure that a substantial percentage of the money to be spent in the budget are made available to Nigerians through government patronage of Made-in-Nigeria goods and services.”
Saraki, while speaking after the passage of the 2017 budget on a television programme, made a similar promise. This time, he promised that leakages will be blocked and that committees will up their game and ensure that the right things are done.
Again, hear him: “The area all of us should be focusing on is the leakages in revenue. So is it that the National Assembly has not been doing their oversight functions effectively or why will an agency of government be inefficient especially one that has do with revenue. We can improve. You might not like this, but the budget we have is not even sufficient in some areas. Think about this, we are meant to carry out oversight on NNPC, CBN and transport sector. These are specialised areas that if you want to catch them, you must have people that really know their business. The National Assembly is populated with members with broad based background and it does not mean most of them are specialised in those areas.
“You have got to pay good money to have that. We have not got there yet. We first need to win the confidence of Nigerians to know that we are truly committed in bringing results. The National Assembly is the strength of our democracy and we have to strengthen it, not Saraki or Dogara, but because we will come and go.
“Under my leadership, I promise you will see a difference in those areas and we need the confidence of Nigerians for that because we are going to be stepping on very powerful people in doing that. That is why people prefer to be executives of agencies to even ministers because little level of accountability is done there and with huge budget.”
Saraki, again in September, when the Senate resumed after a two-month break, in his welcome speech, told all the standing committees to put their houses in order and carry out effective oversight functions.
In his welcome speech, Saraki said: “Let me therefore use this opportunity to call on all our standing committees to begin the process of putting together their oversight plan for a close and proper review of the performance of the 2017 Budget. “In the same token, we must remind ourselves of the initiative we started and for which we have significant stride – that is, the Made in Nigeria initiative. Distinguished colleagues, it is time to enter the next stage of this initiative; the oversight of implementation to ensure that the policy yields expected gains.”
Despite Saraki’s repeated promises, many Nigerians still hold the strong view that the Senate can do more. For me and for some Nigerians, effective oversight is more important than law making. If leakages are blocked and agencies are frequently questioned on how they expend public funds, anti-graft agencies will soon run out of work.
Again, I understand the financial constraints of the Senate. Oversight functions do not come cheap. There are over 65 standing committees in the Senate. If they are to carry out effective oversight functions on agencies under them, that will gulp billions of naira. If they ask for more money, Nigerians, including this writer, will criticise them.
But the reality is that they need the money. If agencies of government are allowed to fund oversight visits of Senators, it will compromise their work and we will likely not get the desired results.
Going forward, I am proposing that more funds should be devoted to that exercise. If President Buhari is serious about fighting corruption, he should support this position. He should encourage the National Assembly to carry out more effective oversight functions. As soon as the President signs the budget into law, lawmakers should swing into action and ensure that the Appropriation Act is implemented fully to its last letter. Whenever the need arises, Senators should raise the alarm and expose government appointees who masturbate with our commonwealth. We need to change the narrative.
Lastly, the Senate needs to be firm. Until the budget is fully implemented, the Senate should not pass another budget. It needs to take a firm stand and ensure that the right thing is done. Party politics should be put aside. The interest of Nigeria and Nigerians should come first.
As a litmus test, the Senate can start with the 2018 budget. Senators are honourable men and I believe they will put Nigeria first.
I so submit!
One more thing
…Day Senators issued SARS red card
On Tuesday, the Senate instructed its adhoc committee on National Security Infrastructure to probe issues of human rights abuses carried out by the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS). The resolution of the Senate, was sequel to a point of order by Senator Isa Misau. He noted that in line with the Police Act and Regulation, the Force Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department, (Force CID) is the highest investigative arm of the Nigeria Police Force (NPF).
“For effective and efficient administration, the department is divided into 14 sections for which the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) is one of them. The squad is supposed to be a section in each state command CID with sole responsibility of handling armed robbery cases and answerable to the state commissioner for police.
“I have in the last few months received several petitions from my constituency both online and physically against SARS on violence from extra judicial killing, brutality, torture, arrest from bribe and other menacing conduct by the men of the unit,” Misau had said.
As a victim of the insensitivity of SARS, I sincerely hope that the Senate gets to the root of this mess. SARS is not above the law. The Police is a creation of the law. SARS must be used to pass a strong message to other security agencies who see Nigerians as their enemies. Enough is enough!