Last week, Nigerians received the news of the passage of the 2016 Appropriated Act by the National Assembly with a feeling of great relief. The budget was buffeted by all manner of controversies ranging from its disappearance from the Senate to the padding by some unrepentant thieving civil servants.
When all the encumbrances were eventually taken care of, the two Chambers deliberated on the document and set different deadlines for its passage. In an apparent bid to please anxious Nigerians, the Senate passed the budget and sent it to the President, Muhammadu Buhari, for assent. In approving the budget, the Senate reduced the figure of N6.077trn presented by President Buhari to the Joint Session of the National Assembly on December 23, 2015 to N6.060trn, a difference of N17bn.
According to the highlights, the budget was scaled down, showing that aggregate expenditure is N6, 060, 677, 358, 227; Transfers: N351, 370, 000,000; Debt Service: N1,475,320,000,000; Recurrent Expenditure: N2,646,389,236,196; Capital Expenditure: N1,587,598,122,031; Fiscal Deficit: N2,204,936,925,711.16, with a Deficit/GDP of 2.14%.
But just as the nation looked forward to the immediate assent of the president to the budget, the news came that the document was not accompanied by the necessary details. Consequently, President Buhari withheld his assent. In the old dispensation where shoddiness was the order of the day, the document would have been assented to, to demonstrate that the system was working while the needed things were done afterwards.
Reacting to the president’s refusal to assent to the budget, the Senate promised to make available the details of the Appropriation Bill next week.
Arguably, no budget since 1999 has been dogged by buck-passing and counter-buck-passing like the 2016 budget. The Appropriations Act, Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2007 and the 1999 Constitution also allows the National Assembly to effect an upward or downward review of estimates laid before the National Assembly by the Presidency.
The Joint Committee of the National Assembly co-headed by members of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Sen. Danjuma Goje (APC-Gombe) and Abdulmumuni Jibrin (APC-Kano), deliberated on the estimates as received.
The National Assembly relied on Section 80 subsections 1, 2 and 3 of the 1999 Constitution as amended in exercising its powers.
Many observers believed that the budget suffered late passage because of late presentation to the National Assembly by the president, a sentiment shared by the chairman, Joint Committee, Sen Danjuma Goje.
He observed that “the 2016 Appropriation Bill, after its presentation to the National Assembly, was seen to be fraught with some inconsistencies”.
The drawbacks, part of which was the padding of the document, eventually exposed those behind the crime. President Buhari ensured that those behind the padding faced the music as he sacked the director-general of Budget Office, Yahaya Gusau, and also flushed out 184 top civil servants from the Budget Office. Aside from sanctioning the perpetrators, the president also merged the budget office with the Planning Ministry for effective supervision and control in the future.
The eventual passage of the document described as the biggest budget in the history of Nigeria has elicited mixed reactions from across the economic and social strata. Speaking on the development, an economist, Bismarck Rewane, said: “Nigerians and the parliamentarians must understand the difference between what is important and what is urgent. There is no pure budget document”. The economist agreed that some aspects of the budget could be frivolous, but emphasized that the real issues should be the focus of government on the implementation of the document.
Beyond the controversies, the budget as a vehicle to haul the nation’s socio-economic development year in, year out should be handled with the seriousness it deserves. A lot of activities have been put on hold because the budget had not been passed. The first quarter of the fiscal year is already gone. It is the first budget of the Buhari administration which holds out high hopes and promises for the suffering masses and the economy.
We urge the Senate to expedite action on the details President Buhari expects from them. It was tantamount to dereliction of one of their sacred duties to have treated the budget the way they did, thus causing needless delay of the assent by the president. There is also the need for transparency on the part of the executive and the legislative arms of government. The mutual distrust between the two bodies is an ill-wind that blows no one any good.
