Budget Row: N’Assembly Justifies Cuts, Says New Projects Included to Address Geo-political Imbalances

Deji Elumoye and James Emejo in Abuja

The National Assembly on Friday justified the inclusion of new projects in the 2018 budget saying it did this to address the geo-political imbalances in the spread of capital projects in the budget.

It also appealed to all appointees of President Muhammadu Buhari to ensure that he’s properly briefed with the truth and facts of their engagement, “so as to promote healthy and harmonious relationship between the executive and the legislature.”

The legislature said the concerns raised by the president during the signing of the 2018 budget, where he criticised the parliament for unilaterally increasing the budget by introducing new projects not captured in the initial proposal, wouldn’t have arisen if he were properly educated by his aides.

Presenting a 22-page reaction to President Buhari’s speech on budget padding by the National Assembly, the legislature argued that the “number of projects had to be increased in order to give a sense of belonging to every geo-political zone of the country to ensure socio-economic justice, equity, fairness, and to command National loyalty…in order to address geo-political imbalances that came with the Executive proposal.”

At a joint press briefing by spokesmen of both the Senate and House of Representatives, the National Assembly noted that “It is our firm belief that if the President had been properly briefed by his appointees, he would not have raised most of the concerns that he did in his remarks at the budget signing. It is therefore inevitable for the legislature to give members of the public an insight into what transpired during the appropriation process and how we arrived at the decisions that are contained in the 2018 budget.”

According to Chairman, Senate Committee on Media & Public Affairs, Senator Aliyu Sabi Abdullahi, who addressed the press alongside his counterpart in the House of Representatives , Hon. Abdulrazak Namdas, the increases effected in the budget were mutually agreed to by both the executive and legislature. He wondered why it should be an issue with the president, if he was duly educated on the development.

Abdullahi added that:”Adjustments and reductions in the locations, costs and number of projects approved were made in order to address geo-political imbalances that came with the Executive proposal. The introduction of new projects was done to ensure the promotion of the principles of Federal Character as contained in Section 14, subsection (3) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as amended which states that “the composition of the Government of the Federation or any of its agencies and the conduct of its affairs shall be carried out in such manner as to reflect the federal character of Nigeria…

“The number of projects had to be increased in order to give a sense of belonging to every geo-political zone of the country to ensure socio-economic justice, equity, fairness, and to command National loyalty.

“It’s important to state that on many occasions, Mr. President emphasised to the nation the urgent need to develop our human capital, which are our people and especially the youth. It is on this note that the National Assembly should be commended to the degree that most of the human development projects were captured in the budget by the legislature.”

He said:”Within the context of the provisions of Sections 4, 80 and 81 of the Constitution, everything that the National Assembly has done is within its powers.”

On Buhari’s criticism of the National Assembly for passing the Appropriation Bill seven months after it was laid before a joint session of both chambers, the spokesmen said: “It is necessary to remind Nigerians that although the budget was submitted in November, as at March 15th 2018 (5 months and 8 days after the budget submission), Mr. President was still directing the Secretary to the Government of the Federation to compel the Heads of Ministries, Departments and Agencies of the Federal Government to appear before the committees of the National Assembly to defend their respective budget.

“In addition, up till April (6 months after the budget submission), the Executive was still bringing new additions to the 2018 budget which the National Assembly in good faith and in the spirit of collaboration and harmonious working relationship accepted.

“More importantly, the 2017 budget, was signed into law on June 5th, 2017 and by the provisions of Section 318 of the Constitution, which defines the Financial Year as “any period of 12 months beginning on the first day of January in any year, or other date as the National Assembly may prescribe” – the 2017 budget lapsed on the 5th of June 2018.
“This same provision is replicated in the 2017 Appropriation Act.

“It is important to also note that if not for the fact that the 2017 budget elapsed on the 5th of June 2018, the Federal Government would not have recorded notable capital projects for the just ended financial year. This is because the Federal Government only started releasing funds for capital projects in December 2017 when the funds from the Federal Government’s loans were released and disbursed to contractors.”

Continuing, they said: “On the issue of an Organic Budget Law to improve the budgetary process, the proposed law is pending in the National Assembly and cannot be considered without the amendment of Section 81 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) which gives the President the power to propose “estimates” at anytime in the financial year. Nigerians need to know that during the last Constitutional Review exercise, the National Assembly in its wisdom amended this provision and it was approved by over two-thirds of the State Houses of Assembly.

“The new Constitution Amendment requires the President to submit the budget not later than 90 days to the end of the financial year. As of today, the President has not yet signed this Constitutional Amendment Bill which would have helped us to have a proper budget calendar, which shall eventually lead to the realisation of the proposed January to December budget cycle.

“It was stated that the legislature made cuts amounting to N347 billion which were meant for 4,700 projects. Again, these reductions of N347 billion were made from low priority areas to higher priority areas to support the generation of employment for our youth by MSMEs. We took the decision to reduce the funds in some areas in order to ensure balance and equity in the spread and utilisation of our national funds. Additionally, the figures given on amounts of the reductions made by the National Assembly were unduly exaggerated as we did not make any substantial reduction on any project to the extent of affecting its implementation.

“To give the exact detail of the projects where we made deductions, it should be noted that the counterpart funding for the Mambilla Power Plant, Second Niger Bridge/Ancillary roads, the East-West Road, Bonny-Bodo Road, Lagos-Ibadan Express Road and Itakpe-Ajaokuta Rail Project, was reduced by only N3,956,400,290 – which represents only 1.78 % of the total N222,569,335,924 submitted by President Buhari. This left these projects with N218,612,935,634 which cannot negatively affect their implementation. This obviously contradicts the claim that these projects lost “an aggregate of N11.5 billion.”