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President of the Senate David Alechenu
Bonaventure Mark has the zeal to move the National Assembly forward
at a pace that would have taken every political observer by surprise
if every thing was to work out as planned.
One of the bills that Senator Mark had looked forwards its early
passage for so many reasons was the 2008 Appropriation Bill that is
expected to cater for the needs of the people and the nation
particularly some of the bogus projects that were embarked upon by
the General Olusegun Obasanjo administration and those he inherited
but abandoned purely for political considerations.
So much went wrong in the consideration of previous budgets that
the former members of the National Assembly assumed that some of the
ways that budgets were defended by Ministries and Agencies of
government under General Obasanjo’s regime were the right things
expected of a democratic dispensation.
The process was such that consultation between the executive and
legislative arms of government was near absent as it merely
translated to directives being issued by the Presidency to the
Legislature to the consternation of a helpless people whose
“elected” representatives were turned to errand boys struggling to
get their master’s attention to the detriment of the development of
the nation.
Away from the practice of yesterday, whereby President Umaru Musa
Yar’Adua does not believe interfering with the duties of other arms
of government as he fully understands and respects the doctrine of
separation of power, the reality of the practice of democracy and
the observance of its ethos has begin to take its rightful place.
It is this reality that has been adopted by the present National
Assembly that some officials of Federal Ministries and Agencies of
Government have failed to grab thinking that like in the past, the
Presidency would have to call the leadership of the two Chambers of
the National Assembly to remove the Chairman of a particular
Committee that was seen as standing in the way of a particular
Minister to get his/her Ministry’s budget cleared.
As it stood then, it was not compulsory for any ministry official to
give account of how the previous budget was spent as the practice
was merely to point to Aso Rock as the only body that can explain
such expenditure pattern for budgets that were approved but for
which cash backing were never forwarded most times.
Unfortunately, most members of the National Assembly at that time
had no guts to ask questions on behalf of the people as majority of
them were satisfied with pleasing “the leader and founder of modern
Nigeria”, just to get the needed anointing that would enable them
bounce back to the legislature even without the support of the
people.
The stark reality of all the unfortunate mistakes of the past is now
staring every govenrment official in the face as they now have to
explain expenditure of approved past budget which they are finding
extremely difficult to do, thereby affecting the scheduled passage
of the 2008 Appropriation Bill before the Sallah and Christmas
recess of the National Assembly.
Giving this reality, the N2.4 trillion Appropriation Bill for 2008
now before the National Assembly cannot be passed until January next
year courtesy of some officials of Federal Ministries and Agencies
of government who are being asked to account for their stewardship
with the peoples monies but for which they are finding extremely
difficult to do.
The implication of the unfortunate development is the fact that it
is the people that would continue to suffer while those in custody
of the commonwealth would be smiling to their bank accounts to draw
from the monies kept in fixed deposit for interests that are never
paid back to government coffers.
Unfortunately, the people don’t seem to know the implication of the
murderous acts of these officials of government that are far worse
than the so called “Etteh renovation contract scandal” as the amount
are in far excess of billion.
Since both the Senate and House of Representatives Appropriation
Committees are yet to receive report from their various Standing
Committees that had been collating vital information on the budget
proposal from ministries and parastatals, the Senate which had
earlier scheduled to the 2008 Budget deliberations for Thursday has
postponed the exercise till Tuesday for its Appropriation Committee
to submit its report with the hope that it may be able to do
something before it proceeds on recess.
Such a possibility look bleak going by the response of the
Spokesman of the Senate, Senator Ayogu Eze to journalists’ enquiries
as to the possibility of passing the 2008 Appropriation Bill before
the end of the year.
Senator Eze said that the chances of passing the Budget this year
were very remote owing to the delay in getting the relevant
information from the ministries in particular and some parastatals.
“We thought that it was going to be possible to pass the
Budget before we proceed on Christmas Break. And of course, you know
that obviously because of change of government, the budget was not
presented early enough and there are lots of issues that have to be
sorted out like the revenue profile, the medium term frame work, the
basic assumptions and all the things that go into making the budget.
And we needed to do a thorough job, a situation which had led to
some delays that were unanticipated”
As if trying to give some ray of hope from a very dim
environment, Senator Eze said that:
”I am not saying that we have foreclosed the option of passing it
this year, but it looks very remote that we can pass it. There is
the remote possibility that it might go slightly into the New Year,
if all the committees are not able to conclude their work. We have
scheduled that the Senate will go on recess on Tuesday to return
early in January. But those of us in the appropriation committee
will stay back. If we are able to conclude at any point in time
during the holiday, the Senate will be reconvened to consider and
approve it, otherwise, we will wait until the Senate comes back
early in January”.
The Senate Committee Chairman on Information and Media however
explained that Senators might be recalled from break to pass the
2008 Appropriation Bill if the Senate Committee on Appropriation
which is remaining behind in order to continue work, is able to
conclude work on the budget.
Sources close to the office of the President of the Senate
told DOME ECHOES that Senator Mark is worried that officials of the
Federal Ministries are deliberately frustrating efforts of the
National Assembly at passing the 2008 Appropriation Bill in a record
time which he considers as most unfortunate.
The Senate President, therefore, is said to have requested
most of the Chairmen of the Senate standing Committees to take their
oversight duties more seriously to forestall future occurrence in
the over-all interest of the people. |
