The leadership change in Nigeria indeed came with a lot of expectations. The thirst for change was largely fueled by the emergence of the All Peoples Congress (APC) as the ruling party after Nigerians had had to contend with the inadequacies of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for 16 years.
Expectations for better governance were also fueled by the personality of President Muhammadu Buhari and his determination to lead in the campaign for a better Nigeria.
However, studying the body language of some members of the current National Assembly, President Buhari may not need to look further for opposition to his search for rebirth. Some of the pronouncements of the National Assembly merely raised the fear that some of these gentlemen at both the upper and lower chambers are not ready for the change which the President has continued to preach.
It is interesting to note that antagonism against the quest of the current administration to change the way things were done in Nigeria is coming from the camp of members of the party in power.
First, the flawed arguments against the operation of the Treasury Single Account (TSA) emanated from one of the leaders of the party in the National Assembly in the person of Senator Dino Melaiye.
Nigerians were still recovering from the embarrassment caused by total lack of depth in financial and contractual agreements exhibited by the Senate during the debate on TSA when another leading member of the APC in the Senate, Solomon Adeola, who is also the Vice-chairman, Senate Committee on Communications decided to start a storm in a teacup.
Last week, some newspapers had reported that Adeola, who is also from APC, Lagos West had faulted a purported order by Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun, that the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) and other revenue generating agencies are to submit their budgets to the Federal Executive Council (FEC) for approval.
The Federal Government had ordered the audit of all revenue generating agencies in the country in order to ensure that all funds collected were remitted into its coffers.
Adeosun, who briefed State House Correspondents after the first Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting this year, revealed that the relevant agencies had been mandated to present their budgets for approval.
But reacting to the minister’s directive, Adeola revealed that under the NCC Act, only the National Assembly was empowered to consider and approve the budget of the NCC.
He stressed that any attempt by the executive to approve the budget of the commission was not only illegal but also an encroachment on the function and power of the legislature.
The minister did not only refute the allegation, she even called perpetrator of the rumour mischievous. According to her, at no point did she approve the budget for NCC. She stated, “Not at all. The law is clear on this. The Ministry of Finance (MOF) compiles the budget and submits to the National Assembly for approval. MOF has never purported to approve any budget.”
Honestly, I don’t know why the senator, who got his ticket through the same ruling party decided to seek popularity by rushing to the media for cheap publicity. In a democracy, there are opportunities for parties, especially the ruling one to meet and assess various policies.
Nigerians are expecting a speedy passage of the 2016 budget and anything that may delay the process should be effectively tackled. The impression being created by the reckless whistle blowing is that the Senate is determined to slow down governance by attempting to impugn the credibility of those put together by the President for governance.
The National Assembly should realise that Nigerians are already in the mood for a change and any attempt to stick to the old order, which has brought the nation to its present sorry state, will be rejected by the people. Gone are the days when the National Assembly thrived on blackmail before budgets are passed.
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