The Nation Newspaper

Tag: NASS

  • Osinbajo seeks NASS approval for N135bn ‘virement’

    Osinbajo seeks NASS approval for N135bn ‘virement’

    Acting President Yemi Osinbajo on Thursday asked the National Assembly to approve a virement of N135.6billion for 14 Federal Ministries and the Office of the Secretary of Government of the Federation (OSGF).

    Osinbajo, in a letter to Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, and dated July 18, 2017, said the virement was aimed at improving the wellbeing of Nigerians.

    The letter reads: “You will recall that the 2017 Appropriation Bill was signed into law on  June 12, 201

    “However, prior to the signing, discussions and consultations were held between the Executive and the leadership of the National Assembly on some critical priority items for which adequate provisions had not been made in the 2017 Appropriation Act.

    “You would also recall that it was agreed that the Executive should submit a virement proposal to the National Assembly for your consideration.

    “The purpose of this letter, therefore, is to forward the virement proposal.

    “The amount of virement being proposed is N135, 643,081,749.

    “In the light of the above, I implore you to urgently consider this virement proposal in order to support our collective efforts to improve the wellbeing of our citizens.”

    Speaker Dogara referred the letter to the House Committee on Appropriation for further legislative actions.

  • NASS’ scorched-earth budgeting

    In the days of yore when yam was the king of crops in Igbo land, men with the largest yarn barns were the elite and by extension, the leaders of the community. The tuberous crop was held in such high esteem that a festival was devoted to it at harvest time. Iwaji subsists today and no true son of the land ate new yam before the annual thanksgiving offering to the gods of fertility, of clement weather and wholesome, regenerative existence.

    Yam represented goodliness and the essence of life. In terms of food value it was versatile, amenable in the kitchen and to the taste buds like no other food crop. It was indeed considered an amiable companion in the household thus its elevation to royalty.

    Further, it was tended and managed like no other crop – from giant mounds to special stays for the climbers; directing the tendrils; specialized harvesting and of course, that special abode known as barns. And even in the barn, yam tubers were not littered carelessly; there was a special art to stringing the tubers in neat straight rows.

    These rituals must have elicited the sagely saying that: “If a man considered his yam truly yam, so it would be”. This interprets to mean that if your yam were truly important to you, you would shower it with the attention fit for royalty and of course it would yield to you bounteous harvest.

    Phew! What is Hardball going on about? Well, putting it most plaintively, let’s say if a country considers her budget crucial, so would it reflect in her growth and development.

    Today, Hardball likens Nigeria’s budgeting system to yam cultivation in Igboland of the medieval times. Except that our legislators do not quite seem to grasp the importance and magnitude of the Appropriation Bill. Just as yam was the mainstay of that medieval economy, so is the budget the soul of the modern nation state. You mess up your budget, you mess up your country.

    Over the years, in fact since 1999, successive sessions of the National Assembly (NASS) have failed to understand the true import of the annual budget.

    First, the budget has never been presented on deadline since 1999. In deed in one of those years, perhaps 2001, the entire year ran out without a federal budget. Can anyone quantify the cost of that?

    That the country is so direly underdeveloped despite huge budgets is signpost to the fact that the NASS has failed woefully in its duties by the people. Apart from the usual lackadaisical attitude today, legislators deign to have powers to initiate, approve, and oversight projects at the same time?

    Sadly, major federal strategic infrastructure which had been abandoned by previous governments but recently being revived are to be abandoned once again because of an obdurate NASS? We have taken one step forward and about to take ten backwards because of the scorched earth politics of our NASS members? What calamity!

  • NASS commends auto firm

    NASS commends auto firm

    Bajaj Auto of India has been commended by the leadership of the National Assembly for its faith and confidence in the nation’s economy.

    The commendation was given by Deputy Senate President, Senator Ike Ekweremadu in Abuja at the launch of the Maxima Cargo, Bajaj’s three-wheeler cargo vehicle for last mile transportation particularly in the agricultural sector.

    Ekweremadu said the company had contributed significantly in addressing the problem of unemployment among the country’s teeming youth and added that the company had proven to be a strategic partner of government towards solving unemployment.

    Also, speaking at the occasion, Benue state governor, Samuel Ortom said the new cargo shuttles including ambulances will boost the country’s auto industry and add value to economic development by providing gainful employment to youths in these trying times.

    Ortom noted that the vehicles will be of immense advantage to the people of Benue state who are largely farmers, and stressed the need to diversify the economy from oil, which is fast losing its relevance.

    On his part, Senior Vice President, Africa, Bajaj Auto, Mr. K.S. Grihapathy said the Maxima Cargo will usher in a new solution in cargo transportation that is cleaner, safer and more comfortable.

  • NUPENG to NASS: Stop distracting Fashola

    NUPENG to NASS: Stop distracting Fashola

    The Petroleum Tanker Drivers (PTD) branch of NUPENG has told the National Assembly members to allow national interest blossom as against parochial interests being dressed in the name of national interest and allow the Minister of Works, Housing and Transport, Babatunde Raji Fashola, to work and fix the roads.

    This is as it also called on the Minister to urgently put aside all distractions and focus on fixing at least at palliative level critical roads that connect all parts of the country.

    The National Chairman of the PTD branch of NUPENG, Salimon Akanni Oladiti, who made the call at the union’s National Executive Council (NEC) meeting in Kaduna yesterday, said the union is aware that the road network had suffered long years of neglect from previous regimes and called on government to adopt appropriate planning and strategic approaches to various interventions.

    Fashola had recently expressed frustration over the way and manner in which the legislative arm of government unilaterally altered the budget after putting members of the executive through budget defence sessions and committee hearings.

    The minister specifically listed the Lagos- Ibadan Expressway, the Bodo-Bonny road, the Kano-Maiduguri road, the Second Niger Bridge and the Mambilla Hydropower Project among others as those that the National Assembly materially altered their allocations, in favour of scores of boreholes and primary health care centres which he claimed were never discussed during the Ministerial Budget Defence before Parliament.

    NUPENG President lamented the unpleasant state of the nation’s highways which he said has continued to leave a sour taste in the mouth, particularly the Lagos-Ibadan expressway which connects the south-west with the entire country and serves as the major road for the movement of goods from the sea ports in Lagos and haulage of petroleum products from the depots in Apapa to all outlets across the country.

    He reiterated that certain roads need urgent and priority attention in view of their economic importance to the nation bearing in mind the current economic realities “while we send note of warning to the Federal legislators to stop playing politics with the safety of lives on the federal highways. The raining season has exposed the very soft under belly of our road networks and our members are the first line of casualties.”

    On the attitudes of its members on the highways, the PTD boss disclosed that no fewer than 4500 of its members have so far been trained on safety on the wheels and more to be trained anytime soon, stressing that training and retraining of its members is key to his leadership.

    Comrade Oladiti frowned at the activities of members of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) whom he alleged harass, intimidate and extort monies from his members, which he said the union will not treat with levity.

     

  • NASS sets up committee to resolve 2017 hajj controversy

    NASS sets up committee to resolve 2017 hajj controversy

    The National Assembly has set up an adhoc committee to resolve issues arising from the 2017 hajj fares announced by the National Hajj Commission of Nigeria (NACON).

    The Chairman, House Committee on Nigeria and Saudi Inter-Parliamentary Friendship, Dr. Abdullahi Salame, stated this at a National Hajj and Umrah Stakeholders’ Conference on Saturday in Abuja.

    Salame said the committee had been mandated to investigate the true picture of this year’s hajj fares and suggest ways to bring down the fares if possible.

    The lawmaker assured that NASS would continue to give necessary support to ensure that religious activities within and outside the country are conducted with little hitches.

    Salame, however, urged NAHCON to always involve stakeholders on hajj when taking decisions to avoid unnecessary controversy in future.

    The Guest Speaker at the workshop, Dr. Usman Bugaje, urged the commission to intensify efforts aimed at overcoming problems hindering smooth hajj operation in the country.

    NAN

     

     

  • NASS should put on its thinking cap

    I have been amazed at the pedestrian level of legislation in the National Assembly especially when reacting to executive bills sent to it, the most recent of which is the current appropriation bill. It seems the National Assembly is bogged down by considerations that are far removed from rationality and national interest. Some weeks ago, the National Assembly was noisily condemning the Ministry of Petroleum Resources’ plan to bring in private investors to run the moribund petroleum refineries in Port Harcourt. This was perhaps because Oando, a Nigerian company in association with an Italian company was involved. The involvement of these two companies would have led to their investing billions of dollars to bring the useless refineries to life and optimum production something that has not happened since the 1970s.  These Port Harcourt refineries and the ones in Warri and Kaduna have been attracting billions of naira allocations for so-called annual overhaul maintenance without any result leading Nigeria to importing virtually all petrol and diesel we use for running our vehicles and mechanical plants. These refineries have thus become a conduit pipe for corruption and the ruin of the Nigerian economy. The foreign exchange earned from export of hydrocarbons and agricultural produce that would have been used for industrialization of the country is uselessly expended on importing what we should ordinarily produce. This corruption during the last regime led to trillions of naira being paid to so-called importers of petroleum products on the politically induced liberalization of importation of petroleum products. Things were so bad that any politically connected person simply had to get a company registered and whether or not the company imported any petrol, its accounts got credited with billions of naira. The cases of this unbridled financial rape and looting have been in the courts for the past two years and it is almost axiomatic that they will die there as many of the corruption cases have experienced.

    I remember with sadness Abacha awarding a one hundred million dollars contract to Total to rehabilitate the Kaduna refinery and I asked myself – how much does it cost to build a new one? At that time Singapore was building a new refinery for the same amount our country was using to do regular maintenance! The point I am making is that maintenance of these refineries have become cash cows for those in power. Now if these refineries can be sold, why would anybody be against it? Before Obasanjo left power in 2007, he invited Dangote to buy the Port Harcourt refineries and he had plans to sell the ones in Kaduna and Warri. But perhaps out of perfidy or inexperience, Yar’Adua cancelled the sale of the refineries. This apparently led Dangote to commence building of his massive refinery in Lagos. This is a refinery all Nigerians are waiting for with bated breath to save us from export of our foreign reserves through petroleum importation. Imagine if our overpaid legislators understood what is in our national interest, they should have hailed the plan to privatize all the money-guzzling refineries. In other countries facing this kind of humiliation of importing what they produce, these refineries would have been sold for one naira each in case there is a law against giving away public property.

    The second example of lack of proper understanding is the debate on the budget. First of all, the National Assembly lacks the expertise to draw up a budget or tamper seriously with a budget that took experts in the civil service and consultants months to prepare. It is not the duty and role of the legislature to begin to inject into the budget what in the considered opinion of the experts does not belong there. This budget had been subjected to budget hearing before the final budget was drawn up. In other words, no one is saying the National Assembly appropriation committee should have no input, what we are saying is that it should not be  altered beyond recognition

    Babatunde Raji Fashola, the minister in charge of works, power and housing has been unjustifiably attacked for drawing the attention of the public to the National Assembly’s radically slashing the allocation for the Lagos-Ibadan express way and the Second Niger bridge from Asaba to Onitsha to the extent that work may have to stop particularly on the expressway because what is in the budget is not enough to pay for work already done. Rather than show understanding of the problem, the minister is being accused on petty grounds of ethnic considerations. He was flippantly told he is no longer a governor of Lagos State but a federal minister.  This is an insult. He does not need to be told that. It is like giving a dog a bad name to hang it .I do not know anybody in that less-than-august body whose nationalist credential is better than that of Fashola.

    First of all the Lagos -Ibadan road is a national road connecting the rest of the country to the major ports of Apapa and Tincan Island which handle more than 90 percent of the carrying trade of the country. The road is not a Yoruba or south-western road. The National Assembly says the road is scheduled for private/public partnership. Was the failure of this not responsible for government take-over of the project after almost seven years of dilly-dallying on the project?  Why must the most important road in the country be used as an experiment? Has it occurred to our legislators that this reasoning is responsible for the collapse of Apapa network of roads since repairing it must be subject to federal character?

    Has it occurred to our distinguished senators that 60 percent of the national economy is tied to smooth running of this North -South road? Lagos is the cash cow of this country in terms of export and import, custom revenue, excise levies and Valued Added Tax. Our legislators need to take crash course in Economics 100 to appreciate the importance of Lagos to the national economy. Lagos is key to the overall development and successful diversification of the economy. Secondly, with all the agitation in the South-east, one would have thought this is the wrong time to cut the budget of the Second Niger Bridge. This may fuel further agitation about marginalization of the south-east.

    I am for equitable national development, but it is not every budgetary debate that should be based on federal character. How does the development, for example, of Murtala Muhammad International Airport in Lagos to make Nigeria the hub for West African aviation be reduced to if you build an airport in Lagos you must build one in Ado-Ekiti or Yola or if you begin re- afforestation to prevent desert encroachment in Katsina and Kano you must do the same thing in Edo and Abia. We need to get serious. This petty, penny-pinching and puerile thinking on the part of our fortunate legislators who do not take their job seriously should be condemned. They should stop heaping insults on a man like Fashola who is adjudged as a man capable of running this country with distinction if he was given the opportunity.

  • No court empowered NASS to increase budget – Falana

    No court empowered NASS to increase budget – Falana

    Activist-lawyer, Femi Falana (SAN), on Tuesday faulted the National Assembly’s claim that the Federal High Court empowered it to increase budget estimates.

    The lawyer said he was the plaintiff in a 2014 suit that challenged the National Assembly oversight powers on the budget, adding that although it was dismissed for lack of locus standi, the court never made such a pronouncement.

    Falana said he challenged the extent of the National Assembly’s oversight powers to rewrite the Appropriation Bill or increase the budget estimates presented to it by the President.

    He said in dismissing the case, Justice Gabriel Kolawole questioned his legal right to institute the action and described him as a “meddlesome interloper” despite acknowledging him as “a renowned human rights crusader.”

    He said, “No doubt, the learned trial judge said the National Assembly is not a rubber stamp parliament. The incontestable statement has since been twisted to give the very erroneous impression that the power of the National Assembly to increase the budget has been judicially recognised.

    “In the entire 22-page judgment the learned trial judge never said that the National Assembly has the power to increase any budget proposal submitted to it by the President. On the contrary, the Federal High Court made it categorically clear that the National Assembly lacks the legislative powers to prepare ‘budget estimates’ for the President or ‘disregard the budget proposals laid before it and substitute it with its own estimates.

    “Even though I have taken the legal battle over the dismissal of the case to the Court of Appeal, I wish to state, without any fear of contradiction, that the learned trial judge concurred with my submission that the Constitution has not vested the National Assembly with powers to increase the budget.”

    Falana quoted Justice Kolawole as saying: “The whole essence of the ‘budget estimates’ being required to be laid before the third defendant (National Assembly), is to enable the third defendant as the assembly of the representatives of the people, to debate the said ‘budget proposals’ and to make its own well informed legislative inputs into it.

    “What the third defendant cannot do is to prepare ‘budget estimates’ for the first defendant (President) or to disregard the proposals laid before it and substitute it with its own estimates. The rationale for this is simple: It is the Executive Arm under the leadership of the 1st Defendant that controls and superintends all agencies, corporations and commissions that generate the revenue for the running of the government.”

    According to Falana, the judge rightly stated that the National Assembly was not a “rubber stamp parliament” because it is empowered to debate and make its informed inputs into budget proposals.

     

  • NASS failed to address key issues on budget – Fashola

    NASS failed to address key issues on budget – Fashola

    The Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Mr. Babatunde Fashola, on Monday said the National Assembly’s response to his observation on the 2017 Budget did not address fundamental issues raised on funds allocated to  key ministries.

    Fashola, in a statement issued by his Special Adviser on Media, Hakeem Bello, expressed concern over the recourse to name-calling and personal attack by the federal lawmakers, insisting the legislators lack power to insert items in budget prepared by the executive.

    The minister said he was worried that spokespersons of the Senate and House of Representatives failed to state the reason the National Assembly cut allocations to key infrastructure projects of the ministry.

    While acknowledging that legislators could contribute to budget making, Fashola disagreed that members of the legislative arm have powers to alter items in the budget after putting the executive members through defence sessions and committee hearings.

    The minister observed that it amounts to abuse and disregard for law for lawmakers to unilaterally insert items not contained in the original documents submitted by the executive.

    He listed the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, Bodo-Bonny Road, Kano-Maiduguri Highway, Second Niger Bridge and Mambilla Hydropower Project, among others, as those the NASS members altered in the budget to insert boreholes and primary health care projects.

    Fashola minister insisted that there is no subsisting concession agreement on the Lagos–Ibadan Expressway, adding that the Infrastructure Construction Regulatory Commission (ICRC) only has a financing agreement with a consortium of banks, which must be paid back through budgetary provisions.

    The statement reads: “I acknowledge the need for legislators to make input in budget process as representatives of the people, but it amounts to a waste of tax payers money and an unnecessary distortion for lawmakers to unilaterally insert items not under the exclusive or concurrent lists of the Constitution, such as boreholes and streetlights after putting Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) through the process of budget defence.

    “It is sad that the lawmakers resorted to name-calling even without understanding what they were getting into. Let us take the projects, which the lawmakers chose to focus on, one after the other. I want the public to know there is no subsisting concession agreement on the Lagos–Ibadan Expressway. What the Infrastructure Construction Regulatory Commission (ICRC) has is a financing agreement from a consortium of banks, which is like a loan that still has to be paid back through budgetary provisions.

    “In the case of the Second Niger Bridge, which the NASS spokespersons alleged that the provision in 2016 budget was not spent and had to be returned, it is display of worrisome gaps in knowledge by the spokespersons about the budget process. The lawmakers must know that a budget is not cash; it is an approval of estimates of expenditure to be financed by cash from the Ministry of Finance.”

     

     

     

  • NASS exceeded its bounds on budget

    SIR:  There has been a lot of back and forth as to the powers of the National Assembly (NASS) to initiate projects and tinker with the budget presented to it by the executive.

    Speaker of the Federal House of Representatives, Hon. Yakubu Dogara, was quoted as saying that NASS has powers to introduce projects in the budget document. The statement is at variance with the provision of the constitution.  The powers of the National Assembly with regards to the passage of the Appropriation Bill is limited to giving authorization for spending on estimates of revenue and expenditure presented to it by the executive.

    Section 80 (2) of the constitution states: “No moneys shall be withdrawn from the Consolidated Revenue Fund of the Federation except to meet expenditure that is charged upon the fund by this Constitution or where the issue of those moneys has been authorized by an Appropriation Act …” This simply means that funds cannot be withdrawn by the federal government if it has not been authorized by the National Assembly – upon passage of the Appropriation Bill into law.

    Section 80 (3) goes further to state: “No moneys shall be withdrawn from any public fund of the federation, other than the Consolidated Revenue Fund of the federation, unless the issue of those moneys has been authorized by an Act of the National Assembly.’’

    From the foregoing, it is important to observe that the powers of NASS as contained in the two sections relate to the power to ‘authorize’ spending of money, and not projects. In other words, the power to give permission, an official approval that money can be spent.

    The legislative powers of authorization are further expounded in Section 80 (4) which provides that “No moneys shall be withdrawn from the Consolidated Revenue Fund or any other public fund of the Federation, except in the manner prescribed by the National Assembly.”

    The last sentence of that sub-section, which reads: “Except in the manner prescribed by the National Assembly,” seems to be the bone of contention. It forms the bases on which the members of NASS assumed that they have the powers to initiate or add projects into the budget document sent to them by the President.

    The fact that the same Constitution, following immediately after S. 80 (4), at S. 81 (1) vests in the President the powers and duty, to “cause to be PREPARED and LAID before each House of the National Assembly … estimates of the revenues and expenditure of the Federation” for the financial year, shows that the powers of preparing projects to be embarked on by the Federal Government rests solely on the executive. Nowhere in the constitution does it give express or implied powers to the National Assembly to initiate projects or compel the executive to embark on projects demanded for by the legislature. Traditionally, the lawmakers can lobby the executive for the inclusion of certain projects in the budget.

    The argument put forward by some NASS members that in America, where Nigeria copied its Presidential system of government, the legislature is allowed to initiate special projects is faulty in the sense that the Nigerian constitution has already provided expressly for the powers of the executive and the legislature with regard to the appropriation process. This implies that there is no need for derivative speculation from abroad when the literal interpretation of constitutionally specified powers is not ambiguous. Secondly, the initiation of projects by the U.S. Senate, popularly known as ‘pork-barrel projects’ is largely considered by the American public as unconstitutional, and corrupt. The other form of it, called ‘Earmarks’ has been banned since 2011.

    There is absolutely no need for the legislature to desire a usurpation of the constitutional powers of the executive. If the constitution desired that the NASS should initiate projects, it would have expressly stated that it PREPARES and LAYS before itself the budget.

     

    • Johannes Wojuola,

    Abuja.

  • 2017 budget: Jibrin backs Osinbajo on project insertion

    2017 budget: Jibrin backs Osinbajo on project insertion

    Suspended Abdulmumin Jibrin (APC, Kano) has expressed regrets that the acting President Yemi Osinbajo may have played into the hands of the National Assembly by signing the 2017 budget into law despite the misgivings he had over the document.

    He however said the acting President Osinbajo’s gesture should not be mistaken as a flaw neither was it deserving of the threats he is getting from the federal legislators.

    Jibrin, in a statement Monday regretted that due process was jettisoned over grey areas identified by the acting President before the document was signed into law.

    Jibrin however assured that more facts about the 2016 budget were set to be released by him as a means of further identifying the inherent flaws in the 2017 budget document.

    He said: “The Ag President made what, in my opinion, was a harmless remark when he observed that the National Assembly has no powers to introduce new projects in the budget. In the same statement, however, he admitted the powers of NASS to allocate resources as that is its core powers of appropriation.

    “I consider his statement very objective. His tone wasn’t confrontational, neither was his body language. Ag President Osinbajo had a day earlier signed the 2017 budget noting that there were grey areas, especially funds lifted from key projects, to introduce new projects by NASS.

    “He further stated that he agreed to sign the budget after the assurance of commitment from NASS to restore the lifted funds. That demonstration of faith in NASS was unprecedented, and the most generous concession in budget negotiation by a President since 1999.

    “No any President has ever agreed to sign the budget into law on the basis of extracting commitment from NASS to attend to outstanding issues after the budget is signed into law, the reasons being:

    “Once the budget is signed into law, the President MUST implement it, whether NASS makes the correction or not.

    “There are only two ways to achieve such corrections: supplementary budget or Virement, both of which are as good as going through the entire budget process all over again, and will require the Executive to go the full length of lobbying and massaging the ego of NASS, a process they detest so much.

    “The unpredictable nature of the relationship between the Legislature and the Executive, as the state of such relationship at a particular time determines how friendly and expeditiously NASS attends to requests from the Executive.

    “Already an unhealthy prevailing circumstances is being created that will make the process tough and place few people in NASS to negotiate some selfish interest only beneficial to themselves.

    “That has been the name of the game. The NASS should know that how it handles this historic concession granted it by the Executive under the guide of Ag President Osinbajo will determine the approach of the Executive Arm in future budget negotiation”.

    Jibrin said Osinbajo was able to accomplish a lot with the signing of the budget what no leader had done before.

    “On one occasion,  President Buhari said, “If we have waited for six months, we can as well wait for weeks for NASS to correct the grey areas before I sign.” That has been the pattern with successive presidents.

    “No President was ready to take the risk with NASS but Osinbajo did, as it appeared like striking a deal with an untrustworthy partner.

    “Whether this seeming pact is calculated or not, is left for time and the scrutiny of vigilant and critical Nigerians to determine.

    “What is obvious, however, is: the Ag President has played into the hands of NASS.

    “What the Ag President has given to NASS is a victory it has never had in the budget process since 1999, understandably to strengthen the relationship between the two frequently hostile arms of government.

    “And so, he deserves a reciprocal gesture and unmistakable friendship from the lawmakers, not attacks and threats. This is my position,” he added.

    The lawmaker disclosed that in due course, he would do a recap of the 2016 budget fraud with new revelations of facts and key actors involved.

    “We will talk about fraud in 2017 budget, how members of the Executive arm collaborate with NASS in this venture, new strategies to beat vigilant eyes, concealment, abnormality, reckless spending, budget revenue frame work, and 2 dollar extra benchmark.

    “Also to be addressed are N140 billion increment in budget size amidst dwindling revenues (the largest in recent years), poor economics, the “reformed” budget process, public hearing of budget, page by page consideration of details, corrigendum, the lies, facts and half-truths of budgeting, conspiracy of a few members of NASS in the budget process against majority of the 359 Members and 108 Senators and, very importantly, how to stop these infractions”.