Budget Padding: Before Dogara Goes to Court

POLSCOPE with  Eddy Odivwri Email: eddy.odivwri@thisdaylive.com, SMS: 08053069356

For about two weeks now, the nation has been entertained by the appalling drama of the members of the House of Representatives. The major Dramatis Personae are the Speaker of the House, Hon Yakubu Dogara, his deputy, Yusuf Lasun, Whip Alhassan Doguwa and Minority Leader Leo Ogor on one side and the former Chair of the House Committee on Appropriation, Hon Abdulmumuni Jibrin.
The latter was sacked by the Speaker on a series of accusations including abuse of office, incompetence and blackmail.

Obviously pained by the sack, Jibrin has decided to extract his own pound of flesh by spilling the beans. That way, what had remained odious secret of the illicit deals in the House has been unearthed and openly displayed in the market place.

It is remarkable to note that the bitter fight between Dogara and Jibrin is a fight of erstwhile chummies. Having known each other very closely, the cuts between such combatants are understandably deep.

Jibrin had accused the quartet of the Speaker and his three-some allies of padding the Budget to the tune of N40 Billion.

Hit on the face by the exposé, the Speaker has in turn accused Jibrin of also padding the budget with over N4 billion as well as making improper demands from MDAs (Ministries Departments and Agencies), by virtue of his office as Chair of the House Committee on Appropriation.
Since then, the accusations and counter accusations have been flying back and forth, to the chagrin of Nigerians.

Feeling reputation-ravaged by the deep cut of the accusation, Dogara had given a 7-day ultimatum to Jibrin to apologise to him or face court action. The ultimatum expired last Wednesday.
I therefore should expect that Dogara will be briefing his lawyers anytime from now on the next line of action.

But Mr Honourable Speaker, before you file those charges and pay lawyers from tax payers’ money, let us make a few checks:

First, was the budget ever padded or not? The likely answer is that it was not. But we know that the president had rejected the budget on two occasions on account of either not having details or that the budget estimate he sent to the National Assembly was completely over-dressed by many strange items engrafted into it by the National Assembly thus ballooning the overall figure of the budget. Mr Dogara, did this engrafting of projects/strange items into the budget take place or not?

Secondly Mr Speaker, it was said that in an attempt to make provisions for National lawmakers to have the so-called Constituency Projects, a budgetary provision of N60 billion was made for members of the National Assembly.

But that the 20-member leadership of the National Assembly (ten apiece in both chambers) conspired to engraft another N40 billion worth of projects into the budget thus shooting up the Constituency Budget figure to N100 Billion, all in the name of Appropriation. Sir, is this true or not?
Thirdly, Mr Speaker, as lawmakers, does your Appropriation power, empower you to recreate an executive Budget by introducing strange items and projects the executive did not envisage into its budget? Put simply, are you, as lawmakers, the owners of the executive budget as to warrant its radical recreation?

Pray, which section of the constitution empowers lawmakers to insert their own projects into the budget proposal of the Executive, in the name of Appropriation?
Yes, by virtue of your office, you are expected to attract development to your constituents. This thus requires you lobbying the executive to graciously site certain projects in your constituencies so your constituents will feel the impact of your representation. It is a privilege, not a right.

But it is not for you to seize the prerogative of drawing up your own budget of over 2,000 projects, awaiting when the executive brings its own and while pretending to be appropriating the executive budget, you engraft your own into it, without the knowledge or permission of the executive and then blackmail the executive to sign same into law. 2,000 projects! How many lawmakers are there in the National Assembly? Does this criminal act appear right in your eye? Is this not why former President Olusegun Obasanjo blandly described the nation’s lawmakers as thieves and robbers?

It is bad enough that these lawmakers have appropriated the functions of the executive by also drawing up their own budget, yet it is worse when you hear that most of these so-called constituency projects are not projects that will improve the overall development index of Nigeria. Or how shall we justify the use of federal government fund to build a community town hall, or market or television viewing centre in a community? Very annoying cases of abuse of privileges. It also shows the vacuous mental capacity of many of the lawmakers. Town hall my foot!
What is more, where is the moral and constitutional propriety of lawmakers in exercising oversight functions on projects they jointly owned and executed with the executive arm of government? Lawmakers have become contractors. Is this not an axe on the doctrine of separation of powers?

Are we not aware that many of the constituency projects end up in the pockets of the lawmakers as their companies or those of their cronies are the ones awarded the contracts? That is if the contracts are ever awarded and executed.

By allocating even N60 Billion (N10 billion per geo-political zone) to lawmakers’ constituency projects, most times without such projects being the outcome of the need assessment of the electorate, nor are such projects products of feasibility study in terms of location or suitability, nor are the cost-benefit analysis of such projects done, it is believed that the executive has indulged the National Assembly members.

But even if we waive the propriety and process of allowing lawmakers to determine and also execute constituency projects, is it fair that while all the 451(360 members of the Lower House and 91 members of Upper Chamber) members of the National Assembly share N60 billion worth of constituency projects, just 20 of the leadership share N40 billion worth of projects?
Fourthly Mr Speaker, is it true that you diverted federal government water project to your farm in Nasarawa state? Is it true that you have a farm or not? If yes, the water project there is from which source? It is pertinent to ask these questions because many Nigerians were excited at Dogara’s emergence as Speaker, not only because he is young (48) and so should belong to the new order of better disposition to governance, but also because he turned out the popular and independent choice of the members of the House.

But it is disappointing and sad to hear that just after one year into his speakership, there is ruckus controversy over alleged issues of integrity and corruption.

It is even sadder that right from the first Speaker, Salisu Buhari to Dogara (except Ghali Na’Abba and Bello Masari) all other Speakers of the House of Representatives have been enmeshed in one form of integrity crisis or another.

It is ironic that the Dogara crisis is coming at a time his own party (the All Progressives Congress-APC) is waging a fierce war against every form of corruption.

But House members like Abdulrazak Namdas, Uzoma Abonta, Edward Pwajok etc, who have been defending the status quo in the lower chamber have practically sold short our collective intelligence. They raise and push very specious arguments that negate logic and commonsense.
Jibrin has not only blown the whistle, he has promised to give all the evidence that will confirm the complicity of Dogara and co.

It is not so much that Jibrin himself is an upright man. He too had been a partaker in the feast of unleavened bread in the National Assembly. He is not innocent. Many believe he would not have become this “accidental activist” that he is, if he was not sacked from his position. Is it not remarkable that the budget he prepared was rejected by Mr President? The one eventually signed by Mr President was harmonized by the Deputy Speaker of the House. At 39, he is a ranking member of the House. He thus spoils the case for younger men who have been craving to take charge.
Jibrin, I believe, is as guilty as those he is accusing, even though I regard almost all his accusations as plausible.

Intelligent as he seems, he could be likened to that woman in the Bible whose baby died and began to claim the living baby of her fellow woman as hers and when she appeared before King Solomon, she agreed that the living baby which belongs to the other woman be split into two. That way, neither she nor the legitimate owner of the baby will have any.

The pro-Dogara lawmakers claim that what happened had been the practice for over ten years. So does that make it right? So what is the whole Change mantra in the APC campaign about if we are yet going to keep doing the dubious things of the past?
Is it any wonder that despite the huge sums appropriated every year in the country, there is nothing to show for it?

Pray, where are these constituency projects around us in the last 16 years? I don’t see them.
The story was told of how some dubious lawmakers in the Niger Delta will engraft the same projects they proposed in their Constituency projects in their state government budgets and even in Niger Delta Development Commission’s (NDDC) budget. They get the NDDC to execute the project and go ahead to claim that it is their constituency project. All they just do is change the signboard of the project on the day the National Assembly members come for oversight inspection. Many of the lawmakers are simply criminals who have been short-changing the rest of Nigerians in the name of being their representatives.

It is for sharp practices like these that make the elite our problems. They are the biggest cogs in our development efforts.

Already the House members have ben split with Transparency Group being one of the splinter groups. The weeks ahead will be quite telling for the House.

Finally, Mr Dogara and co including the Jibrin himself have to submit themselves to external investigation. Dogara cannot be allowed to be a judge in his own court. They must spare us the silly shenanigan of reducing this scam to “internal affairs” of the House. Nigerians want to know the whole truth and those who have compromised their offices should face the music otherwise Col Sambo Dasuki (retd) et al should be allowed to go home and enjoy their loot.