By Emman Ovuakporie, Joseph Erunke & Johnbosco Agbakwuru ABUJA—THE National Assembly, NASS, declared, yesterday, that the Presidency would be ungrateful for the good job it did on the 2016 Appropriation Bill passed into law, last week, if President Muhammadu Buhari actually said he would not sign the document unless it was accompanied by the details. NASS regretted that the Presidency failed to appreciate the herculean task it faced to pass the budget, despite the errors contained in the different versions of the document submitted to the legislature and the litany of disapprovals by some ministers. File: Buhari during the 2016 budget presentation to the National Assembly. But the Presidency through its Senior Special Assistant on National Assembly Matters (House of Representatives), Suleiman Abdulrahman Kawu, insisted that until the budget details were submitted for scrutiny, it would not be assented to by the President. It was, however, drama in the office of Chairman, Senate Committee on Appropriation, Senator Danjuma Goje, as he drove away journalists who were there to seek clarification on the budget controversy. Addressing journalists in Abuja, yesterday, Chairman, House Committee on Appropriation, Dr. Abdulmumin Jibrin, said the President was at liberty to assent to the budget or refuse to do so. Jibrin said he was sure that the statement did not emanate from the Presidency as former President Olusegun Obasanjo assented to the budget during his administration without the details. He, however, assured that details of the budget would be made available to the Presidency within the next two weeks, insisting that from the side of the National Assembly, the budget had been passed. He said: “There is nothing that has happened so far that is abnormal. Let me put it straight and clear that I doubt that such a statement could come from the Presidency, knowing fully the challenges we went through during the budgeting process.
“Ordinarily, the National Assembly should not have responded to the issues raised but we are duty-bound to put the issues into perspective and put records straight, even though we doubt very much if the Presidency will issue such a statement, knowing the challenges the budget has faced so far. “The general public should note that the MTEF (Medium Term Expenditure Framework) and 2016 budget proposal came to NASS very late. You will also recall that a lot of dust was raised over different versions of the budget circulated in the National Assembly. Further, some ministers disowned the content of the budget during defence before NASS. “Amid these inconsistencies and discrepancies, the NASS had been deeply engrossed in perfecting the anomalies inherent in the 2016 Appropriation Bill. In order for the nation to move forward and avoid stagnation of administrative processes, the tradition is that the bill is passed and forwarded to the Presidency for assent, while the lawmakers continue to work on the details. “There is nothing abnormal about this practice and yet nothing abnormal about a President assenting a budget before or after seeing the details. In any case, the budget details are usually sent within a week or two after passing the budget. “In view of the inconsistencies, errors, omissions and padding that characterised the 2016 Budget, it would be unpatriotic of NASS to forward the budget details without being extra-careful, meticulous and cautious in discharging its duties. This is to ensure we do not make same mistake that the executive made. “We have been working day and night, we are doing our best, we have been very generous to the executive arm of government. With all these series of challenges in the course of working on the budget, I doubt very much that the executive arm of government or the Presidency, knowing what has transpired in the last few months, will be throwing stones at the National Assembly.” Maintaining that it was not abnormal for President Buhari to sign the Appropriation Bill without the details, he said: “We have instances of President Olusegun Obasanjo signing the budget without the details; we came to Yar’Adua who always preferred to see the details. “For us in the National Assembly, we are trying to make sure that we do not make the same mistake the executive arm made.
Mind you, whatever comes from the executive is a proposal. Maybe, that is why they get away with a lot of things. We cannot get away with such things that they came with because what we are sending to them is practically the law. So, there are lots of differences between what they do and what we are doing. “I have heard people say the President has refused to assent or the President will refuse to assent. We have the power to appropriate and the National Assembly will continue to uphold its power of appropriation as enshrined in the constitution. “There is no place in the world, no country in the world where the executive sends a budget to the parliament and expects that that budget goes back to the executive the way it was sent, it never happened. “So there is no way the details will go back to the executive the way it was sent. We have been gracious enough, we have been generous enough. We sent the envelope the way they brought it, apart from the N17 billion reduction. “The N17 billion was a cut we did from the overheads, which we actually believed that there were lots of things that ought not to be included in the overhead. So we cut off 10 per cent across lines, across all the MDAs, to be able to save that amount of money for the country, otherwise, all the envelopes were left the way they were. Even with that alone, I expect that the executive arm of government should be thankful. “What we have done for the executive arm of government in the last few months since the Buhari’s administration, I think if they are not thanking us, they cannot complain or throw stones at the National Assembly. “He continued: “The 2016 Budget is the most challenging budget the NASS has ever passed in its recent history, taking into account the many controversies and omissions, particularly in NYSC, Prisons, Pensions, personnel shortfalls, among others. The budget failed in many respects to connect with the policy thrust of the government.” National Assembly yet to forward budget details —Presidency In his reaction, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on National Assembly Matters (House of Representatives), Abdulrahman Kawu, said after over a week the budget was passed by the National Assembly, it’s details had not been made available to President Buhari for him to scrutinise and append his assent. He said: “In view of the ongoing debate about the 2016 Appropriation Bill passed by the National Assembly on Wednesday, March 23, 2016, I wish to use this medium to inform Nigerians that one week after the passage, the Presidency is yet to receive the budget details. “As a former three-term member of the House and a two-term principal officer and presently the Senior Special Assistant to the President on National Assembly matters, (House of Representatives), I wish to shed light on the whole matter. “First, the usual tradition of budget processes by the legislature and the Presidential assent is that if the two chambers pass different figures, they would then constitute a harmonization committee to harmonize their various positions, after which the appropriation committees of both chambers will work out the details. “After working out the details, they will forward it to Mr President for his assent. But this time around, the legislature has passed the same figures. “Once the President gets the budget, he and his team will look at the details of what the National Assembly has passed. If there is any observation, he will send it back to the National Assembly, and if not, he will assent to it. “This has been the practice since the inception of our present democratic dispensation in 1999. Now we are waiting for the National Assembly to finish with the details and transmit same to Mr President. “For avoidance of doubt, the National Assembly has not transmitted any budget details to President Muhammadu Buhari, let alone for him to sign it. “Thus, it is pertinent to inform Nigerians that the budget details are yet to reach the President for his scrutiny and subsequent assent.” Meanwhile, chairman, Senate Committee on Appropriation, Senator Danjuma Goje, lost his cool as he berated his office assistants for allowing newsmen inside his office to seek clarification on the budget. Goje, who was in his office with members of the committee, was approached by journalists to seek clarification on the budget controversy but instead of listening to the reporters, the senator turned to his office assistants and shouted at them for allowing the newsmen into his office. The senator shouted: “Wa ya kira su? Wa ya kira su? (meaning:” who called them? who called them?”) Thereafter, he turned to the reporters and asked in Hausa: “Wa ya kira ku?(Meaning:” Who called you?”).
The senator, who represents Gombe Central senatorial zone, used Hausa language to ask his aides who called the journalists and, thereafter returned to his office without uttering a word to the curious reporters and banged his office door against them.” Other members of the committee, who emerged from the meeting in Goje’s office refused comment, creating suspicion that the committee members may have agreed that no member should talk to the press on the issue. Also, Senate spokesman, Abdullahi Sabi, could neither pick his call nor respond to text message sent to him to react to the issue. Vanguard gathered that members of the committee are still fine-tuning the details of the controversial budget.
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