Media reports to the effect that the federal government may have slashed the N37 billion vote for the renovation of the National Assembly in the 2020 budget to N9.2 billion is a welcome development. It is also an ample demonstration of the responsiveness and sensitivity of the President Muhammadu Buhari administration to the yearnings and aspirations of Nigerians.
Addressing journalists Sunday in Abuja ahead of the first anniversary of the Ninth Senate scheduled for Thursday, Senate President Ahmad Lawan said the new allocation of N9.2 billion had been accommodated in the revised appropriation bill for the lawmakers’ approval.
He said, ”The renovation was misunderstood but sometimes you allow criticisms so that you give the people the feeling that this is democracy and people criticized it, we took it very calmly. It’s not a National Assembly building, it’s an FCDA building. We need to ensure that something as important as an arm of government, the people’s complex, is not allowed to deteriorate. N37 billion was estimated by the FCDA to be expended to rehabilitate the National Assembly complex because they have the technical capacity and this is their building just like the Presidential Villa. They maintain it. So it’s not our own.”
The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP), BudgIT, Enough is Enough (EiE) and 583 other concerned Nigerians, had in December last year filed a lawsuit at the Federal High Court, Abuja seeking to restrain President Buhari and the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning Zainab Ahmed, from releasing N37 billion budgeted for the renovation of the National Assembly complex.
In the suit, plaintiffs argued that the National Assembly complex should be a safe and conducive environment for those who work there. “But spending ₦37 billion to renovate the place is not commensurate with the constitutional commitments to public services and goods; decreasing public revenues and increasing level of debts as well as the poor economic and social realities in the country.
“Spending N37 billion to renovate the National Assembly complex is self-serving, wrongful, illegal and unconstitutional expenditure of public funds, as it means less money for educating millions of out-of-school Nigerian children, providing access to clean water and healthcare to Nigerians including the elderly, or repairing the country’s roads and bridges,” the plaintiff also argued.
They asked the court to restrain the president and the minister from releasing the sum to the FCDA and NASS “until an impact assessment of the spending on critical sectors and access to public goods and services, is carried out. The defendants are public officers who have sworn the constitutional oaths of office to perform their respective duties in the interest of Nigerian citizens. The refusal of President Buhari to object to the Budget/Appropriation Bill containing a huge N37 billion on renovation of the National Assembly complex is a gross violation of the constitution and existing laws in Nigeria.
“The National Assembly complex was reportedly constructed at the cost of $35.18 million iin 1999 and ₦40.2 billion was budgeted in December 2013 for the construction of phase III of the National Assembly complex and renovation of the first and second phases of the complex.
However, following the steep drop in oil revenue occaioned by the coronavirus pandemic, the federal government slashed the 2020 budget by N318 billion. The government reduced the estimate from N10.594 trillion to N10.276 trillion. It also reduced the oil bench mark from $57 per barrel to $30 per barrel, as the oil production volume was dropped from 2.17 million barrel to 1.70 million barrel. The exchange rate was increased from N305 to N360 per dollar.
The federal government also reduced the N37 billion budget for the renovation of the National Assembly complex to N27.7 billion. But a large section of Nigerians had also criticised the 25.1 per cent reduction. The critics argued that while the National Assembly complex renovation budget was reduced to N27.7 billion, the Basic Health Care Provision Fund, which is meant to cater for all the primary healthcare centres across the 774 local government areas in the country, was significantly reduced by N44.4 billion to N25.5 billion, a decrease of more than 42.5 per cent. The BHCPF is made up of one per cent of the Federal Government Consolidated Revenue from international partners such as the World Bank, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the United States Agency for International Development.
It is on the backdrop of this scenario that we commend the federal government’s current action, which in our view, is not only progressive but is also indicative of the fact that democratic practices and ethos are fast taking root in Nigeria. As a matter of fact, the 75 per cent reduction in the National Assembly complex renovation should be seen as a win-win by both the federal government and its massive critics, cutting across all segments of Nigeria. This, indeed, succinctly illustrates the dictum of democracy for the people, of the people, and by the people.
