Leadership (Abuja)
Philip Nyam
5 January 2009
Abuja — As the House of Representatives resume plenary tomorrow, there are indications that the delay in the passage of the 2009 budget in the lower chambers may linger unless the differences between the House and the Presidency over the fate of 2008 capital votes captured in the 2008 Appropriation Act, which were not executed, and not carried forward to the 2009 budget are reconcilled.
The House had shortly before embarking on Christmas and new year break suspended the passage of the budget even though the senate passed the document. It is insisting that the uncompleted or unexecuted projects in the 2008 Appropriation Act which were not captured in the 2009 budget should be rolled over to the new year.
According to the House, abandoning the implementation of such projects makes nonsense of the budget process. It is one of the major reasons why members suspended the approval of the budget before it went on Christmas and New year recess.
The House of Representatives explained that the need to avoid further clash with the executive over the 2009 appropriation was the reason for the delay in its passage.
Chairman, Committee on Defence, Hon. Wole Oke who expressed opinion on the delay of the 2009 budget in spite of its speedy approval by the Senate, said "we operate a bi-cameral legislature, the House of Representatives and the Senate. But the actual legislation is majorly the business of the House of Representatives who are 360 as against 109 Senators".
"What we are trying to do is to take a detailed look at the 2009 budget and achieve a balance with the position of the Executives, and I can assure you that we [Reps] are on top of developments on the budget matter".
Members of the House are also not comfortable with the express manner the upper chamber passed the 2009 budget without questions.
Some explained that they have notified their constituents of the execution of some 2009 capital projects for their welfare.
"These projects have been touted as the dividends of democracy. And now, they were not executed as was expected in the 2008 Appropriation Act. And to compound matters, they were not captured in the 2009 budget. Does it mean that the nation does not need educational and health projects? How do you for example budget for the improvement of educational institutions and suddenly you neither executed them nor are you carrying them over for execution in the new year.
"The same thing is happening in the health sector. How do you accomplish the realisation of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) without executing the projects in these two critical sectors? In fact, these are the two sectors that directly affect the average person in the street. These are the institutions that affect the people the National Assembly represent directly. Even if you are going to drop some projects, must it be the ones that affect Nigerians directly?
"No matter where the educational institution is based, it serves people from all parts of the country. No matter where an health institution is located, it also serves people from all over the country. Or are we saying we have no need for quality educational or health institutions. What is the rationale for not having them reflected? What do we tell Nigerians about these issues? Does it mean that the process of appropriation is a mere exercise to be respected at the caprice of the Executive? Any of the educational or health projects not executed in the 2008 budget should be carried over to the 2009 budget. This is the minimum condition for the passage of the 2009 budget on time. Other wise, we are ready to drag this until we get the right thing done," one angry member said during the holiday season.
Chairman, House Committee on Petroleum [Upstream], Hon. Bassey Otu, however said that the Lower House is not slowing down the speedy passage of the 2009 budget.
"And we are not opposed to the passage of the budget by the Senate. Even if the Senate has passed the budget, the House of Representatives will not be stampeded. Because the power of the purse belongs to the House, so we have to look at the issues line by line", Otu stressed at the weekend.
Commenting on the budget, Chairman, House Committee on Appropriation, Hon. Ayo Adeseun noted that "insinuations that the House is opposed to the quick passage of the budget is not correct. What we want to achieve is to allow for a reasonable level of diligence on the part of the members of the House. And we can't do that without studying the budget thoroughly".
According to Adeseun, "we don't want to put pressure on the passage of the budget that will not meet the approval of Mr President as was the case with the 2008 Appropriation. That will amount to not meeting the yearnings and expectations of the Nigerian people".
He appealed to Nigerians to exercise a little patience with the chamber, assuring that the exercise would be over within a short time, and stressed that Nigerians would be better for it when the exercise was over.
"We can assure Nigerians of a good job when the exercise comes to an end in a few days but it is better to take this little time and do a thorough job that could stand the test of time.
Chairman, House committee on Media and Public Affairs, Eseme Eyiboh, who spoke in a chat with journalists at the National assembly before the recess explained that the appropriation and finance committees of the House were painstakingly going through all the items with a view to ensuring that all the t's and I's were crossed so that there would be no need for the executive to return it to the National assembly as was the case with the 2008 appropriation bill.
"The House has not yet passed the 2009 budget because of the desire to do a thorough work so that the budget does not go the way of the 2008 budget.
"The relevant committees of the House are taking the pain to go through all the items contained in the budget so that when it is passed, there will not be any buck passing that will again delay implementation", Eyiboh said.
Earlier at a media briefing, House Committee Chairman, Rules and Business, Hon. Ita Enang had also explained that the passage of the budget will be contingent and predicated on when the various Committees of the House present their reports to the Committee on Appropriation, which in turn is expected to make the final presentation to the House at plenary.
He said the intention, unlike the Upper House, is to take a reasonable time to consider the budget thoroughly before passing it into law. "The House Committees will do a thorough job and come out with their recommendations through the Appropriation Committee. We in the House of Representatives are not in a hurry; we'll take our time because we want the 2009 budget to be a budget that is acceptable to every member of the House who represent the generality of Nigerians."
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