PENULTIMATE Thursday, the fragile peace that reigned in the House of Representatives after weeks of bickering over the leadership of standing committees was shaken. This is as members of the House from the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and the main opposition, the Peoples Democracy Party (PDP) engaged each other in a fierce verbal battle over the N465.7 billion supplementary budget submitted by President Muhammadu Buhari.
Last Wednesday President Buhari wrote the Speaker of House of Representatives, Hon. Yakubu Dogara requesting for approval for the Supplementary Appropriation Bill of N465,636,926,857 (Four Hundred and Sixty-Five Billion, Six Hundred and Thirty Six Million, Nine Hundred and Twenty Six Thousand, Eight Hundred and Fifty Seven Naira).
The president explained that in the 2015 Appropriation Bill N460,636,926,857 (Four Hundred and Sixty Billion, Six Hundred and Thirty Six Million, Nine Hundred and Twenty Six Thousand, Eight Hundred and Fifty Seven Naira) is for additional recurrent (non debt), while N5,000,000,000 ( Five Billion Naira) is contribution to the development fund for capital expenditure for the year ending on 31st day of December.
There was no sign that the day’s plenary would be one that would test the much talked about bi-partisanship practiced 8th House of Representatives. At best, the only odd happenstance was the Deputy Speaker Yussuff Lasun walking from aisle to aisle, talking to lawmakers. Despite a clueless beginning of plenary as soon as the debate on the request from the president for which Dogara stopped all other issues of urgent public importance, describing it as the most critical matter of urgent national importance commenced, lawmakers from both sides took positions along party lines. Indeed, this was despite majority of them insisting that their contributions wasn’t influenced by party affiliations. It became clear that Lasun might have been lobbying his colleagues for an easy passage for the bill.
The major issue that the caused sparks to fly was the fuel subsidy payment for which about N413 billion was requested for by the president.
House Majority Leader, Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila while leading the debate on the Bill said the federal government needed approval for the supplementary bill in order for “the wheel of government to roll to the end of the year”. He stressed that the federal government needed the funds to pay petroleum marketers even as fuel queues had resurfaced.
He identified the record low oil prices and the subsequent loss in value of the naira as the major reasons the federal government sought additional funding for non debt re-current expenditure in order to meet its responsibilities for the reminder of the year.
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Gbajabiamila who stated that the Buhari administration would ensure a more transparent management of the fuel subsidy intervention by cutting off all middle men, called for the bill which came up for second reading to be passed.
But as soon as he was done Hon. Nkiru Onyejeocha (Abia PDP) pointed out that little or no explanation had been given on the performance of the 2015 budget. She put the 2015 budget implementation at thirty percent.
Onyejeocha wondered how the federal government would implement the supplementary budget with few weeks to the end of the year.
Her contribution drew loud reactions from APC members. The lawmaker who sought and got the Speaker’s protection then asked, “My worry is that if we pass the budget, will they implement it?”
Onyejeocha’s contribution was just the beginning of PDP’s onslaught as House Minority Leader, Hon. Leo Ogor angered APC lawmakers more even as they tried but failed to stop him, when he said the Buhari administration was demanding for the “highest” amount for fuel subsidy payment, when according to him the president said that fuel subsidy was an alien idea.
Ogor who called on the relevant committees that would handle the supplementary budget to critically analyse it, also described as “very wrong” requests for approvals for monies already spent, such as the N1.5 billion expenditure requested for Nigeria’s participation at the recently concluded All Africa Games and Rio 2016 Olympics.
His words: “By virtue of the provisions of our constitution, the President of the Federal Republic has the powers to present a supplementary budget. It is not so much about whether the budget is approved, but the focus should also be in terms of implementation”. If you look at this budget, it is broken into three parts. We must also look at the legislative powers of the National Assembly to appropriate funds before they are spent. But a situation where they begin to bring budget proposal for funds already spent creates an unacceptable scenario. How come we are being asked to approve funds that have already being spent. It’s not done anywhere.
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“The issue of subsidy is another thing that we must critically scrutinise in this budget proposal. How come we are incurring such a huge amount of debt as subsidy claims in such a short period of time, under this government especially coming from a president who said severally that he does not believe in subsidy as it was alien”.
The shouts from APC lawmakers criticising Ogor’s words wasn’t enough as Gbajabiamila who came under a point of order countered the Minority Leader, demanding that he withdraws his comment that President Buhari was opposed to fuel subsidy. He urged that Ogor “speak only the truth as the president has never come up to oppose fuel subsidy”. The House Leader’s contribution was applauded by APC lawmakers.
Other APC lawmakers towed the line of the Majority Leader with Hon. Mojeed Alabi (APC Osun) arguing that tumbling oil prices and a weakened naira necessitated government’s request for more funds. In fact, Alabi dismissed calls from his PDP colleagues asking for an explanation on the performance of the 2015 budget inherited from the Jonathan administration . According to him, by voting in Buhari Nigerians had rejected everything Jonathan. His comments was largely rejected judging by the exclamations that came from other lawmakers. That didn’t stop Hon. Mohammed Gudaji Kazaure (Jigawa APC) from taking a purely partisan stand. He simply asked that whatever is presented to the House by President Buhari be approved. “We need the people to support anything Gen. Buhari brings to the House” he said.
In the largely rowdy session which saw lawmakers sticking by their parties, there were a few who stood in the middle and called for the bill to be passed especially as it would ameliorate the suffering of Nigerians. One of them was Agbonayinman Johnson (Edo PDP) who asked that lawmakers concentrate on the issues targeted in the budget. Also the House Minority Whip, Hon. Yakubu Barde, who pleaded that what should be looked into is how the supplementary budget would affect the life of the common man.
It took Dogara’s intervention to bring the hot exchanges to a halt. The Speaker ruled that the debate come to end, even as he insisted that the president has not spoken against fuel subsidy. “ I am not contributing to this debate. But I know as a leader in this government, the president has stated and restated he is not against subsidy” he said.
Despite the rowdy nature of plenary, when the Speaker put the bill up for a voice vote, it was unanimously passed without a single dissenting voice. House committee chairman on Media and Public Affairs, Hon. Abdulrazak Saad Namdas spoke with the press on the rowdy session insisting that the voice vote which didn’t record a nay showed the lawmakers were on the same page. He said: “Now we have a very united House. Committees are very busy and everything is going on well. As a constitutional provision, the President has the right to send a budget to the House. The 2015 budget has a lot of problems. The prices of crude oil went down and the insurgency in the Northeast increased.
“That was why the President had to send a supplementary budget to the House. When it was discussed, every member supported it. That is because they understand the importance of the budget. The change that APC government promised has started and we have started working.”
It was glaring, with the arguments and counter argument, that majority of lawmakers wanted the bill passed, it was also clear that important documents such as the Middle Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) and budgets would be properly scruitinised by members. It is safe to say that when either of the two documents for the next fiscal year are sent to the House by President Buhari, it will elicit the same level of passionate contributions like was witnessed last Thursday. So disorderly was the day’s plenary that the chairman of the committee on Ethics and Privileges, Hon. Ossai Nicholas Ossai called on the Speaker to set a date for members to be schooled on how to conduct themselves better during debates. Not many were still in the chambers when Ossai made this suggestion to Dogara. Majority had exited the chambers leaving the impression that they had dealt with the most important issue for the week. Undoubtedly, when the 2016 budget is presented, Ossai and the House leadership will have their hands full trying to keep lawmakers on the narrow path when debating it.SUN NEWS
