Controversy greeted the jerking up of the size of Budget 2017 by the National Assembly (NASS), to accommodate their expenditures, originally not captured in the document as presented by President Muhammadu Buhari to the legislature. TAIYE ODEWALE writes
Penultimate week, precisely Thursday 12th May 2017, the National Assembly passed for third reading the 2017 Appropriation Bill otherwise known as 2017 Budget presented to it on the 14th of December 2016 by President Muhammadu Buhari with an estimated figure of N7.298trillion out of which the budgeted vote for the National Assembly was N115billion as it was last year.
In the previous budget by the National Assembly, not only was the proposed aggregate expenditure for the country in the 2017 fiscal year increased from N7.298trillion to N7.441trillion representing an increase of about N143billion but also effected N10billion increase on its own projected votes from N115billion earlier estimated by President Buhari to N125billion it eventually passed for its self.
The breakdown of the proposed N125billion which covers 10 critical areas of expenditures shows that under personnel costs, a total vote of N6.714bn was allocated for the National Assembly Management, N1.856billion for the Senate, N4.923billion for the House of Representatives, N8.917billion for legislatives Aides, N961.127million for NASS Service Commission and N416.452million for NASS Legislative Institute.
Out of the N85.878billion appropriated as total over head costs, the National Assembly Management got N6.193billion, N25.111billion for the Senate, N39.635billion for the House of Representatives, N11.767billion for General Services, N1.144billion for NASS Service Commission, N1.229billion for NASS Legislative Institute, N534.968million for Legislative Aides, N118.970million for Public Account Committee (PAC) in the Senate and N142.764mmillion for PAC in the House of Representatives.
Under capital votes, Management got N2.011billion, N4.430billion for the Senate, N4.493billion for the House of Representatives, N2.727billion for NASS Legislative Institute, N309.791million for NASS Service Commission, N150million for Legislative Aides and N816.928million for General Services.
Also in the breakdown was an item known with the executive in terms of Service Wide Votes with a vote of N391.396million for both the senate and the House of Representatives.
Further details of the line items are according to both the Senate President, Bukola Saraki and Speaker, House of Representatives, Hon Yakubu Dogara will be made available for public consumption in due course.
The Deputy Senate President, Senator Ike Ekweremadu and some other senators like Senator Dino Melaye (APC Kogi West) etc, in their comments before the passage of the entire budget profile, commended the 8th Senate and by extension the 8th National Assembly under the chairmanship of the Bukola Saraki for the openness displayed by it for the first time on its yearly budget.
According to the Deputy Senate President, “Disclosure of the basic highlights and details of the N125billion appropriated to the National Assembly in the 2017 budget would no doubt put to rest yearly agitations by critical minded Nigerians for such information on yearly basis which is even far less in percentage (1.67%) of the entire budget profile when compared to what it used to be in previous years in spite of its N10billion increase in total votes when compared to that of 2016”.
Expectedly, the Chairman, Senate Committee on Appropriation, Senator Danjuma Goje (APC Gombe Central) in his comments on the budget, explained that the remaining N133billion increase on the earlier total budget profile came about as a result certain critical projects injected into it by the National Assembly.
Part of which were the N10billion allocated for the take-off of second runway of the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja by the federal government, N4billion allocated for the rehabilitation of Abeokuta Airport in Ogun State so as to provide alternative for the Murtala Mohammed International Airport, Ikeja in anticipation of any rehabilitation works on it in future.
“We consider the rehabilitation of the Abeokuta Airport to serve as alternative to the international airport in Ikeja. Last time when Abuja airport runway was undergoing rehabilitation, Kaduna Airport, being the nearest was used as alternative airport”, he explained.
Others are according to him, N10billion for the completion of railway line project linking Bwari in Abuja to Aladja in Delta State, N5billion for the completion of Baro Inland Waterways and N10billion added to the budget of N65billion proposed for the amnesty programme by the executive aside N25billion added to the executive’s proposal in order to ensure that road networks in the country are good enough for transportation services etc.
Apparently endorsing the additional allocations infused into the budget proposals by the Appropriation committees of the National Assembly, the Senate President, Bukola Saraki in his comments after the passage of the budget remarked thus: “I am very proud for what we have been able to achieve and we do hope that this budget of recovery has reflected equity, it has ensured efficiency and adequate resources to all relevant sectors and will go a long way in helping Nigerians to come out of the economic recession and create growth.
“I want to appreciate the level of consultations and the good working relationship and cooperation that existed between us and the Executive for us to get to this point. This is a remarkable difference from what we saw in 2016 and it shows that the entire country is better for it.
“Lastly we commend all Nigerians, we appreciate their patience and understanding to this point and we believe that the budget we have done this time will bring value to all of us”.
However there are fears that the jerked up budget profile by the National Assembly may not go down well with the executive. Now, the budget is before the Acting President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, for his assent. The question waiting for an answer is whether Osinbajo will assent to it in view of the newly introduced projects by the lawmakers with the executive being the only arm of government constitutionally saddled with such a responsibility.
Time will definitely tell.
However there are fears that the jerked up budget profile by the National Assembly may not go down well with the executive
