Daily Independent (Lagos)
Festus Owete
5 January 2009
Federal lawmakers in the Lower House did not pass the 2009 budget before Christmas so as to avoid conflict with Aso Rock over capital project allocations.
House Defence Committee Chairman, Wole Oke, explained that to journalists in Abuja at the weekend.
His take was supported by Petroleum Committee (Upstream) Chairman, Bassey Otu; Appropriation Committee Chairman, Ayo Adeseun; and Media and Public Affairs Committee Chairman, Eseme Eyiboh.
Oke said the Chamber opted for a thorough examination that will gel with the position of the executive.
He reiterated that there is a bi-cameral legislature, the House of Representatives and the Senate, "but the actual legislation is majorly the business of the House of Representatives where there are 360 as against 109 Senators.
"We are on top of developments on the budget matter."
Otu maintained that "we are not opposed to the passage of the budget by the Senate.
"Even if the Senate has passed the budget, the House 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."
Adeseun insisted that "insinuations that the House is opposed to the quick passage of the budget are 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.
"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 because "we can assure (them) of a good job when the exercise comes to an end in a few days. It is better to take this little time and do a thorough job that could stand the test of time."
Eyiboh equally explained that "the House has not yet passed the 2009 budget because of the desire to do a thorough work so that (it) 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 so that when it is passed, there will not be any buck passing that will again delay the implementation."
Another member who spoke anonymously said his colleagues have notified their constituents about the execution of capital projects for their welfare.
His words: "These projects have been touted as the dividends of democracy, but they were not executed as was expected in the 2008 Appropriation Act. 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 execute 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 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 on the street (whom) the National Assembly represents directly. Even if you are going to drop some projects, must it be the ones that affect Nigerians directly?"
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