By Ochereome Nnanna
QUARRELS in the
legislative chamber are neither new nor strange. They are universal phenomena.
They range from hot exchanges of words to fisticuffs. Maces are often broken,
chairs thrown, clothes torn and blood drawn. It did not start today.
The boil-over of the crises of the
defunct Western Region started when the mace was broken and police had to
intervene to separate a fight between the supporters of Chief Obafemi Awolowo
and Chief Samuel Akintola. We have seen how a lawmaker, Hon. Chidi Lloyd,
“maced” the head of his colleague, Hon. Michael Chinda in the Rivers State
House of Assembly in July 2013. Hon. Dino Melaye’s clothes were torn to shreds
in a fracas in June 2010. Hon. Sidi H Ali pulled a gun on his colleagues over a
sharia debate in the Second Republic and Hon. Aminu Safana died in a fight in
the House of Reps in October 2007. Created with Tagul.com If you check these
events, you will discover how money (or corruption) has degraded our
legislative culture over the years. The 1962 fracas in the Western House and
the Second Republic episode were, kind of, connected with loyalty and ideology.
But all the fights in the legislature since 1999, including the numerous
instances not mentioned here were tussles for power because power is MONEY.
When the APC Federal Government
assumed power in May last year, party leaders (especially the main stakeholders
in the merger that begat the APC, President Muhammadu Buhari and Asiwaju Bola
Tinubu) decided to impose their handpicked choices to lead the two chambers of
the National Assembly. But elements within and outside the APC challenged the
imposition. Thus, Senator Bukola Saraki stepped forward to contest for
President of the Senate and Hon. Yakubu Dogara went for the Speaker of the
House of Representatives.
These were elements of the “new”
Peoples Democratic Party, nPDP, which changed the political equation in Nigeria
when they joined the fledgeling APC merger put together by Buhari and Tinubu.
Fronting for Saraki in the Senate like Goliath at the vanguard of the
Philistines was Dino Melaye, a legislative “war veteran”. On the side of Dogara
in the House was Hon. Adbulmumin Jibrin, the Kano-born legislative hothead who
takes no prisoners when he fights.
They defended their principals
before, during and after the 9th June 2016 National Assembly inauguration. As a
reward for his role in the struggle, Dogara handed over the prestigious (or
“juicy”) Committee on Appropriation to Jibrin. This was probably a
pre-negotiated pact. All was quiet while the going was good. Jibrin settled
down to give himself the benefits of his support for Dogara.
His colleagues in the Committee
accused him of shutting them out while he “single-handedly” removed funds
allocated to the proposed Lagos – Calabar railway project and transferred them
to his own favoured projects in his native Kano State, and more specifically to
himself.
The complaints from disgruntled
members put so much pressure on Dogara that he realised that his very position
was at stake unless he did something about his former Goliath, Jibrin. So, he
bowed to pressure and removed Jibrin. Hon. Jibrin now unleashed his fighting
talents on Dogara and everyone else. He had got wind of the plan to remove him,
so he approached Dogara before hand and offered to resign.
However, no evidence has been
proffered to show he actually submitted a resignation letter. Jibrin has gone
to radio, television, newspaper houses and the social media in a campaign for
the probe, prosecution and removal of Dogara and other principals officers. He
did not stop there.
He also sent petitons to the Police
and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission,EFCC. Emboldened by Jibrin’s
fire-eating antics against a constituted authority he once defended with all
his might, elements in the House that calls itself the Transparency Group,
which says it is committed to the elimination of the age-old practice of
“budget padding” in the National Assembly, has reportedly collected 100
signatures calling for the investigation of Dogara and other principal officers
of the House of Representatives, including, of course, Jibrin. Some legislators
and legal opinion leaders believe that since the Legislature is constitutionally
empowered to appropriate funds, it is technically incapable of “padding”
budgets. As I see it, this storm in the House of Representatives has provided
an opportunity for the APC Federal Government to effect Change in the way the
Legislature has treated public finance in the name of power to appropriate
funds. What exactly is this?
Does it mean the lawmakers have the
right to radically change the budget proposal sent to it by Executive and move
allocations just as they like? If the interests of a multi-party legislature
clashes with the vision/interests of a ruling party and the government it
produced, which one should hold sway when it comes to the allocation of funds
to projects in the budget?
As I see it, anything put in the
budget by any lawmaker after the Appropriation Bill has been passed for the
assent of the Chief Execuitve is a criminal act, and the culprit must be
punished. Secondly, the appropriation committee MUST work together and present
their work for the consideration of the general House. Any act of shutting out
members is a rape on transparency and amounts to an attempt to commit a
criminal act. The budget is a law governing the spending of public fund.
Public officers must be held
accountable for the way they handle public fund, even years after they have
left office. The invitation of the anti-graft agencies and ultimately the
Judiciary to determine where the Legislature’s power of approptiation starts
and stops will help put an end to the eternal squabbles between the Legislature
and the Executive.
This could prove beneficial to our
democracy. It is true that the abuse of the budgeting process is as old as our
renascent democracy. During the President Olusegun Obasanjo years, many
ministers were disgraced for bribing federal lawmakers to spike their
allocations. But on the whole, the National Assembly enjoyed a measure of
independence during the PDP years in power. Some say this enabled lawmakers to
enrich themselves through the abuse of their power of appropriation and oversight.
With Buhari’s anti-graft war,
virtually every aspect of Legislative activities is now subject to the scrutiny
of the anti-graft agencies and the courts. Jibrin’s petitions have handed the
National Assembly over to the Exective branch which can now use the Attorney
General of the Federation, the anti-graft agencies and the courts to hold the
Legislature to account for the way it carries out its power of budget
appropriation. Because of this fight-to-finish, the National
Assembly has voluntarily surrendered
its once prized independence to the Executive. This will have several dramatic
effects. Number one is that for the first time, budget abusers will be detected
and prosecuted. Those found culpable will lose their plum positions. The
Executive will thus achieve its original wishes of getting these unwanted
officials out and imposing the handpicks of the President and party leaders to
head the National Assembly. Though it might minimise corruption in the
budgeting process, the Legislature may no longer be able to take its
independence for granted. The Legislature might eventually become a rubberstamp
for the
Executive, and this could increase
civilian dictatorship. If this takes place, it will be a legacy of the APC
regime. It is left to be seen if the President and the Party will be willing to
cash in on this opportunistic opening. There are, however, indications that the
Party is already wading in, perhaps to treat the issue as a “family affair,”
PDP style.
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