THE National Assembly will come alive on Tuesday. Members of the two chambers will once again take their seats as they resume for legislative business after the Christmas and New Year recess.
One major task before the lawmakers will be the annual ritual of working to pass the 2017 Appropriation Bill.
President Muhammadu Buhari presented the Appropriation Bill to a joint session of the Senate and House of Representatives on December 14, 2016, some clear two months behind schedule.
The 2017 to 2019 Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) and Fiscal Strategy Paper (FSP) upon which the 2017 budget was predicated, is still hanging in the Senate, practically begging to be passed.
Senate Leader, Senator Mohammed Ali Ndume, once described the MTEF and FSP as “empty and unrealistic,” prompting the Senate to return the fiscal document to the Presidency to rework.
The document was returned to the National Assembly a day before the presentation of the budget by Budget and National Planning Minister, Senator Udoma Udo Udoma, with little or no adjustments.
Questions were asked, eyebrows raised by stakeholders over the late submission of the vital budget document. The silence of the Presidency that was required to do the needful was deafening.
The Senate dismissed insinuations that it ought to have adopted and passed the MTEF and FSP before receiving the budget from Mr. President. Deputy Senate Leader, Senator Bala Ibn Na’Allah, would have none of that. Na’Alla explained that the Fiscal Responsibility Act did not say the budget should not be received without the passage of the MTEF and FSP.
The Act, Na’Allah enthused, stipulated that the budget should not be passed without the passage of the MTEF and FSP. ‘Escapesionist’ permutation, you may say. Perhaps Na’Allah forgot that the details of the MTEF and FSP as passed by the parliament are meant to guide the executive in the formulation of the budget.
Going forward, ministries, departments and agencies of government will, as usual, take their turns at budget defence sessions created essentially for lawmakers to rob minds with heads of MDAs on the budget estimates and sectoral allocations.
Senate President, Abubakar Bukola Saraki, has assured that the Senate will work to fast track the consideration and passage of the budget to pave the way for its early implementation.
Reassuring as Saraki’s assurance on early passage of the budget may be, the Senate, nay the National Assembly, should work to ensure that the needless controversy of ‘padding and missing’ that trailed the 2016 budget do not rise.
Though the unsavory and nasty stories told about the 2016 Budget persisted, steps should be taken to work on the 2017 Budget without Executive-Legislature rancour.
Standing committees empowered to scrutinize and vet the budget estimates should therefore be up and doing. Necessary questions should also be asked about the level of implementation of the 2016 Budget.
Asking penetrating questions about the implementation of the 2016 Budget, a huge chunk of it having been vired to other uses, should be the starting point for the consideration of the 2017 Budget.
The era of ‘carry go’ and ‘rob my back, I rob your back’ arrangee kind of budget defence should be a thing of the past. A budget may appear good on paper, its implementation may be a different matter entirely. Of what use is a budget that will be poorly implemented or one implemented at the whim and caprice of the executive?
Budget defence, no matter the MDA involved, should also be open. Closed door budget defence, in the name of so-called ‘security reason,’ has been observed to be avenue for budget padding and unwholesome insertions.
It is also note worthy that Saraki confirmed in his speech during the budget presentation that the 2017 budget process benefitted from greater cooperation and consultations between the National Assembly and the Executive.
The Senate President was also quick to add that the “National Assembly recognises however that the problem with our budget and budgeting process goes far deeper than the relative progress we have made. This is why in August 2016, I inaugurated a joint Executive/Legislative Committee and a technical committee to review our budget systems and identify ways we can make them more transparent, more participatory, more result-oriented and therefore more effective.
Saraki stated the National Assembly has already worked to bring the key highlights of the report of the budget process review committee into effect within the 2016 framework, including: pre-budget consultation and engagement; greater information sharing and recording; public hearing on the budget bill; drafting of an organic budget bill; and amendment of the Public Procurement Act.
Perhaps working to engender a transparent, participatory, result-oriented and effective budget process will be the best thing that would happen to the country. The economy, especially infrastructure development, will no doubt, benefit from such development.
The Organic Budget Law, Saraki explained, will provide the legal framework for regulating the procedures that budget preparation, approval, implementation and even accounting must follow.
It will, according to the Senate President, bring the budget and national planning regime within a clearly defined framework, thereby ensuring greater predictability, transparency and efficiency.
The civil society was not left out in the effort to open up the country’s budget process. Saraki stated when the National Assembly introduced the civil society public hearing on the budget initiative, the idea was to open up the budgeting space by incorporating the civil society into the budget process, essentially to ensure greater transparency and accountability.
Saraki thereafter launched into the essence and spirit of the budget. For him, the overarching purpose of a budget is essentially to ease the economic pressure on the people in general and the poor most especially.
“The 2017 budget assumes even a greater significance, particularly in this time of recession. The feedback we get from visits to our various constituencies is that there is hardship in the land. We can see it and we can feel it. This situation therefore commands all of us as government to a greater sense of urgency. We cannot work magic, but we must continue to work the clock.
“Our people must see that the singular pre-occupation of government is the search for solution to the current economic hardship; and the commitment to ease their burden. They don’t want to know what political parties we belong, what language we speak or how we worship God. They have trusted their fates into our hands, and they need us now more than ever, to justify the trust that they have reposed on us. The people of Nigeria will pardon us if we do some things wrong. But they will not forgive us if we do nothing. The two chambers have taken a position whatever may be our differences, or opinions on issues of the economy we will all work with one common purpose for this reason,” Saraki stated.
On the need to be bold and pragmatic to drive local production and promote made-in Nigeria goods, Saraki reiterated that the only way the country can cut down on its foreign exchange needs, create jobs and stimulate entrepreneurship is to promote local manufacturing and investments.
He stated the necessity to promote local manufacturing and investments informed the decision of the National Assembly to inject the made-in-Nigeria amendment into the Public Procurement Act.
Saraki delivered what many considered the clincher when he declared that what President Muhammadu Buhari presented to the joint session remained a mere proposal which the National Assembly is entitled to shape into form.
“Mr. President, though we are confident that we are receiving from you a very well-articulated budget proposal, it is worthy to point out that the best produced budget from the executive at all times still remains a proposal according to our constitution which the National Assembly will work assiduously on.
“On behalf of the National Assembly, we commit to work on the 2017 budget, conscious of the responsibility that the current economic situation imposes on us and driven by the urgency to alleviate the suffering of our people and also bearing in mind your aspiration and vision for our people. We assure you Mr. President and all Nigerians that not even a single minute would be wasted on our side in the course of getting this budget approved,” Saraki declared.
As the National Assembly reconvenes and begins the consideration of details of the budget, the days ahead will unveil the true colour of the 2017 Budget.
The Nation