This post has already been read 5300 times!
Kayode Oluwa
There seems to be a festering stand-off between the Executive and the Legislature as President Muhammadu Buhari has reportedly withheld his assent to the 2016 Appropriation Bill sent to him by the National Assembly, on the grounds that the budget provisions/ appropriations had been mutilated, modulated, altered and tampered with by the lawmakers and some key projects expunged or reviewed downward.
Some highlights of the projects and programmes whose provisions were allegedly tampered with by the National Assembly included the Lagos-Calabar N60bn coastal railway which was removed; the Idu-Kaduna rail line cut by N8.7bn; major federal roads slashed; polio eradication and essential drugs for HIV/AIDS expunged; and agric/water resources reallocated to constituency projects. For this reason, some people have been castigating the National Assembly as “anti-people” while others are calling for mass protests to “occupy’ the National Assembly. There appears to be an ongoing smear campaign on the National Assembly, particularly the Senate, all because of the “bad boy”, Senate President Bukola Saraki. The last time I checked, the National Assembly consists of both the Senate and the House of Representatives. Hence, the alleged alteration of the budget provisions by the lawmakers could not have been the sole prerogative of the Senate, without the concurrence of the House of Representatives. But curiously and interestingly too, while the Saraki-led Senate has been receiving a lot of bashing and criticisms, the Dogara-led House of Representatives seems to be absolved, insulated and isolated in this whole budget imbroglio!
Albeit, for one reason or another, some people (depending on the side of the divide one belongs) may not like the leadership of the National Assembly, particularly the Senate (owing to the Saraki factor) as presently constituted, we should not be oblivious of the fact that the National Assembly has a constitutional responsibility, as per its oversight function, to consider, review, modulate, amend, accept or turn down the budget proposals or part thereof as presented by the executive. However, the parliament has a corresponding duty to give justifiable reasons and plausible explanations for doing so and ought to inform and convey the same to the executive accordingly.
We may not immediately know why some of the budget provisions were reviewed downward or rejected outright until we get to know the reasons espoused by the National Assembly. Some of the reasons may be due to project duplications or failure to give convincing reasons for embarking on such projects at this point in time and the positive impact or value addition such projects will have on the masses in the near time. The legislature may even look at some of the projects as not being of immediate priority in this fiscal year based on cost-benefit ratio analysis vis-a-vis the scarce, dwindling resources available to the government. There may be other reasons which may be unknown to many but which ought to have been conveyed to the Executive. I personally have my reservations on the need, timing, value addition and priority of one or two projects that were rejected or reviewed downward. That said, I think it behoves the National Assembly to throw more light on the reasons for the modulation of the appropriation in order to have a balanced and an informed public discourse on the matter.
We don’t need to castigate the National Assembly as anti-people each time they have one or two disagreement with the executive.
Going forward, I posit that:
(1) Let the National Assembly convey the reasons for the modulation of the appropriation to the Executive, if they have not already done so.
(2) Let both arms of government sit down and reason together at a roundtable to iron out and resolve the areas of difference and harmonise their positions in the overall interests of the country. They should sheathe their swords, bury the hatchets and shun all forms of political intrigues, bickering and horse trading in the interest of millions of suffering Nigerians. They should realise that both arms of government are supposedly working in the interest of the people. Both arms are to supplement and not to supplant each other. The executive arm is working for the people, just as the legislative arm is also representing the interests of the people. So, both arms of government ordinarily and constitutionally have a common goal and collective objective of serving, protecting and promoting the interests of the Nigerian people.
Oluwa, a leadership and change management expert, wrote in from the Executive Business School, Lagos, via kooluwa@ebsng.com
Copyright PUNCH.
All rights reserved. This material, and other digital content on this website, may not be reproduced, published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed in whole or in part without prior express written permission from PUNCH.
Contact: editor@punchng.com
Source: Punch News
