N’Assembly abandons 2015 budget for politics

Hopes that the 2015 budget would be passed early
might have been dashed as members of the
National Assembly are now engrossed in politics
while the Appropriation Bill is left unattended to,
The PUNCH investigations revealed on Tuesday.
Almost two weeks after the N4.3tn budget passed
the second reading at the House of
Representatives, not much had been heard about
the progress of work on the document by the
lawmakers.
The budget was referred to the committee stage by
the Speaker, Mr. Aminu Tambuwal, on January 14.
The Speaker is the All Progressives Congress
governorship candidate in Sokoto State.
Although the plenary of the House is on break due
to the ongoing electioneering ahead of the
February elections, House committees have a
mandate to work on the budget by holding defence
sessions with Ministries, Departments and
Agencies of the Federal Government.
“It is about two weeks since the committees were
directed to meet with the MDAs on this budget.
But, as we speak, no committee has called any
meeting. It is a signal that this year’s budget will
be very late, talking about the time it will leave the
National Assembly,” a legislative official, told The
PUNCH in Abuja on Tuesday.
Also, about two weeks after the Senate adjourned
plenary till February 17, no committee of the upper
chamber had met to consider the budget of the
Federal Government ministry or agency under their
Supervision.
Findings showed that members of the House were
directed to share their time between campaigning
for the February polls and holding budget sessions
with the MDAs in a bid to fast-track the defence of
the proposals made by the MDAs in the budget.
“Unfortunately, that is not happening. It is two
weeks on and none of such meetings has taken
place. The attention of all the members is on the
forthcoming elections even though over 60 per
cent of them are not candidates for any positions,”
another National Assembly official stated.
It was learnt that more than 150 members of the
federal legislature failed to secure a return ticket
during the primaries of their respective political
parties conducted in December last year.
Most of the members, who are not contesting any
elective positions, were expected to sit and work
on the budget, but investigations revealed that they
had stayed away from Abuja in the last two weeks.
A major issue the House referred to the
committees for discussion is what should be the
appropriate crude oil benchmark for the budget.
While President Goodluck Jonathan proposed $65
as the barrel price for the budget, crude currently
sells below $50.
The House had specifically asked the committees
on Appropriations and Finance to recommend a
‘realistic” oil benchmark to the House after
meeting with the Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi
Okonjo-Iweala, on the issue.
The PUNCH learnt on Tuesday that no such
meeting had been held with the minister by any of
the committees.
However, some officials of the Ministry of Finance
claimed that the government had already made up
its mind on the $65.
“The minister is not likely to come up with a lower
benchmark even if she is to meet with the House
committees today.
“The thinking of the ministry is that oil price will
eventually stabilise around $65 before the second
quarter of the year,” one ministry official said.
When contacted for comments, House spokesman,
Mr. Zakari Mohammed, denied that the budget had
been abandoned for electioneering.
He claimed that the committees might be meeting
with the MDAs without necessarily making it a loud
event.
“The committees may be meeting and holding
discussions with the MDAs. There are many details
to be looked at in the budget and it takes a while;
there certainly will be public sittings,” he added.
But, many legislative aides confided in The PUNCH
that their bosses were in their constituencies
seeking votes.
One senior aide said, “Almost all of them are back
home (constituency). They can’t be sitting in Abuja
when other people are working very hard to snatch
their seats from them.
“The rule for now is win your election first before
any other consideration.Even those who know they
are not coming back in June are back home
because they still have to work for their political
parties to succeed.”
Also, one of our correspondents, who moved round
the new Senate wing at the National Assembly on
Tuesday, observed that most of the offices of the
senators were locked while no activity took place
in any of the committee rooms.
While ruling on the motion for the adjournment on
January 14, Deputy Senate President, Ike
Ekweremadu, who presided over the session, had
said the holiday was to allow members to
participate actively in electioneering at their various
constituencies.
Source: punchng