Are Our Legislators Serious?

Lately the papers have been filled with stories about our federal legislators – the dead in the water/lame duck committee report on FCT a.k.a. the probe on El-Rufai; or the power probe with which this set of legislators started off their four year tenure with a loud bang only for the report to sit languishing without it so much as being circulated for review. That is on top of the 2.3billion Naira car scandal, the plans to impeach Dimeji Bankole and the disgraceful infighting between the House of Representatives and the Senate over superiority in the National Assembly.

Last year the President assented to only five laws. Yes, not too long ago in another article about the Legislators I said the number of laws did not matter but the quality, and I still stand by those words; if these five laws were real laws which would make some meaningful lasting contribution to Nigeria and Nigerians, then we could all over look the number. But when these five include amendments to existing acts and other insignificant laws such as the ‘Certain Political, Public and Judicial Office Holders (Salaries and Allowances e.t.c., (Amendment) Bill 2008’, then we have to hold that number up in shame.
Now not only are the legislature complicit in ‘missing budget-gate’ but apparently they have made unfavourable changes to the budget proposal submitted by the executive arm.

A little background.

Considering that the 2008 budget was finalised in November 2008, just in time to expire with the year, plans for the 2009 budget started relatively well with the President submitting the budget proposal to the National Assembly on December 2 2008. By 18 December 2009, one of the papers reported: ‘Senate Passes N3.049 Trillion 2009 Budget’. It seemed we were learning from the past and striving to improve, great.
January, February…silence. Then we hear the budget is missing and this starts to raise some interesting questions such as ‘what exactly is the process for passing budgets’? We know the President submits the proposal and this is considered by the legislature as an Appropriation Bill. However, once passed by the legislature, does it proceed like all other bills to the President for his assent or is there a different process for the nation’s budget? Maybe this is where the gap lies because this is where the trail for the 2009 budget went cold.
It is now March and thankfully, the budget has been found but to put it mildly, the executive are concerned about the changes made by the legislature. To quote a member of the executive council “what the National Assembly did to the 2009 budget was not far from sabotage".

Apparently not only did they slash the budget for crucial sectors such as power and gas, in direct conflict with the President’s seven point agenda, but they increased their own budget by 57% and allocated funds to non existent organizations including N250 million to an anonymous council.

Is there any citizen of Nigeria who thinks it makes sense for the National Assembly to spend 111.3 Billion Naira while the allocation for power transmission is a paltry N800 million? Each of our 109 Senators gets 28 million naira a year while the 360 Representatives get 22 million respectively. Yet they only work three days a week i.e., Tuesday to Thursday and even then only from about 10am until 2pm. Mondays and Fridays are supposedly for them to ‘visit’ their constituents and for this they even get an allowance. The Standard Papers – the Constitution of the Senate and the House – provide for five working days from 9am to 5pm, just like the civil service but these rules have since been relaxed... like everything else when it comes to accountability and responsibility.

Section 59 of the 1999 Constitution says that where within thirty days after the presentation of the Appropriation Bill, the President fails to signify his assent OR withholds his assent, then the Appropriation Bill can be presented to the National Assembly sitting at a joint meeting and passed into law by a two thirds majority. Now the key is: if there was no record of the bill being sent to the President for his assent, how would we know when the thirty days was up? This means during that period where those who should know, but did not know where the 2009 Appropriation Bill was, had the legislature wished to, it could arguably have approved the Appropriation Bill without giving the President the chance to do so.

In the United States, which we model our constitution and government on, there is a traditional ceremony surrounding the annual approval of the United States budget. The majority leaders along with minority leaders march from Capitol Hill to the White House to formally present the budget for the signature of the President. This ceremony is important not because it enables us to avoid situations where no one remembers the budget being sent or received, but more for the people to see their government at work and provide transparency to the democratic process. The Chief of Staff of the President also receives a copy and while this ceremony does not mean there are no issues or compromises to be made between the legislature and the executive, it serves as a milestone in what is sometimes a three to six month process and a marker for the checks and balances against possible abuse.

Unfortunately, because of the years of military rule, the legislature in Nigeria is the least developed arm of government – always the first to be disbanded after a coup, while the judiciary and executive soldier on. This no doubt has impacted on the development of our own traditions, but since we borrow so much already, why not borrow a similar tradition to support the budgetary process? It would be most heartening for Nigerians to know that the legislature is working for and not against us…otherwise we can always start to exercise Section 69 of the Constitution and recall our legislators, with this track record it should not be hard to justify.

Published March 17 2009