•Governor Mimiko presenting 2014 budget estimates to a near-empty house does Nigerian democracy no good
The news that Ondo State Governor, Olusegun Mimiko, presented the state’s 2014 Budget estimates to nine out of a 26-member legislature is, from a democratic perspective, something to decry.
That, out of the 17 members that shunned the event, 12 loitered around the House of Assembly premises, in apparent protest, is even something more reprehensible. Which self-respecting legislature, in a supposed presidential system with its strict separation of power and rigid checks-and-balances, would yield its holiest-of-holies for the head of the executive to desecrate? Indeed, Governor Mimiko’s budget presentation to nine, out of 26 members, reeks of swashbuckling arrogance, bordering on legislative contempt!
Though the House was the direct victim of such sacrilege, the ultimate slight is on Nigeria’s democracy. If the governor can so cynically brush aside the constitutionally guaranteed oversight function of the people, as represented by the assembly, then Nigerian democracy is of a peculiar hue. It was a comic presentation that nevertheless was tragic.
Still, it is difficult to blame Dr. Mimiko alone for the debacle, even if he swore to an oath to uphold the Constitution. The sssembly too showed reprehensible cowardice, by not insisting on its right under the law. If it had shown enough guts, the governor would have been forced to do the right thing.
From newspaper reports, the mass boycott arose from executive-legislature disagreement over the budget. On December 24, for instance, the legislature had rejected a N1.5 billion reported re-ordering of the 2013 budget, which the governor had sent to the House. So, both sides had had a budgetary face-off.
Still, boycotting your own chambers is no way to insist on your oversight function, as the Ondo House has done. Indeed, it is tantamount to running away from duty, due to legislative gutlessness. Whatever Governor Mimiko did wrong, he should have been confronted in the hallowed chambers of the Assembly in plenary, rather than the legislators virtually bolting away.
Though Ifedayo Akinsoyinu, majority leader of the House, tried to spin the yarn that most of the House members were on other assignments, that claim sounded hollow — and with all due respect to the honourable legislator, brainless. What assignment could be more important than the money bill for the year? Besides, no less than 12 of the protesting lawmakers were in the vicinity, as the governor purportedly presented the N162 billion 2014 budget.
Among the high-profile absentees were Fidelis Akinwolemiwa, the chairman, House Committee on Finance and Appropriation, and Akindele Adeniyi, Akinwolemiwa’s vice. Among those at the presentation were Dare Emiola, Deputy Speaker, who presided in the absence of Speaker Samuel Adesina, said to be ill.
Governor Mimiko, the ‘Quisling 9’ at his presentation and the ‘Boycotting 17’, particularly the 12 in the assembly’s precincts, ought to be ashamed for disgracing themselves and Nigeria’s fledgling democracy.
The governor must know that the law created his office, so he cannot purport to do things any other way from what the law stipulates. Deputy Speaker Emiola has earned due flak for presiding over a session he knew was procedurally flawed — and fatally too! The protesting 17 ran away from duty: they dared the law, but fled from a governor who the law created! If the governor indeed had erred, he ought to have been confronted in the assembly chambers, not outside.
To use the Biblical parallel, the Ondo executive and legislature have sinned and fallen short of the glory of democracy. Let the governor go back and re-present his budget; and let the House members present themselves to do the job they were elected for.
But let that be the last time Ondo will treat Nigerians to gubernatorial outlawry and legislative pliancy.
