MISSING BUDGET: President Buhari’s Excuses, Senate Acceptance Inadequate.

President Mohammadu Buhari

The recent discrepancies detected in the original 2016 Budget presented by President Mohammadu Buhari on 22^nd December, 2015 to a joint sitting of the National Assembly in line with the provisions of the 1999 Constitution, Federal Republic of Nigeria was indeed a colossal blunder and gross aberration against the APC led-Federal Government. This clearly points to a lacuna which allows the Senate screen ministerial nominees strictly based on ‘no criminal records and general academic qualifications’ without specific mandate to question on portfolios to spearhead. Ministerial nominees screened not based on portfolios is as good as no screening at all, and certainly, could be counterproductive.

The President having been sworn to office on May 29^th, 2015 had delayed the constitution of his cabinet on account that best brains were being sourced for. Though, it was understood that it was aimed at saving funds for the government knowing that the ministers in office without approval of the budget are technically inactive, meanwhile all their statutory allowances would be running. Indeed, it was thoughtful of the President to have delayed the appointments. Hence, Nigerians, in high hopes patiently waited for the list of his nominees and eventually, all scaled through. The kitchen cabinet which was immediately constituted after his inauguration was overtly lopsided leading to diverse criticisms to the extent of sarcastically branding him as the President of the northern Nigeria.

Ostensibly, the accusers were not all that wrong considering the fact that statutorily, the President of a country who hitherto was confined to a constituency like any other citizen automatically belongs to all the constituencies in the nation upon his swearing-in to office, hence, the concept of the ‘President of the Federal republic’. By implication, all actions while in office must clearly reflect and be taken with consideration to all the geopolitical zones, ethnic and social groups.

Incidentally, amidst the lopsided appointments as far as the kitchen cabinet is concerned, most Nigerians who placed priority on the nation believed that ethnicity considerations should be secondary as over the years, it was indisputably fruitless. Overwhelmingly, the President was given a go ahead, simply to avoid excuses but tangible results and dividends of democracy.

Already, the country was over the years characterized by monumental failures, administrative deficiencies, and above all, indiscriminate stealing, diversions and mismanagement of public funds. Thus, with Buhari’s pedigree and outstanding political-will to fix the nation and deputized by a professor of law, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, a senior advocate of Nigeria, most patriots felt that unnecessary distractions on the government should be reduced to the barest minimum.

Admittedly, Nigeria, along with other nations of the world is presently facing a severe economic crisis which is global. On this account, the present administration should reasonably not take the blames but given optimum support to overcome it. Secondly, with the revelations on the ongoing investigations into the looting of the nation’s treasury clearly points to the fact that the previous administrations, particularly the erstwhile President Goodluck Jonathan wasted our time and resources. It proves that the country indeed passed through the shadows of death during the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP’s rule of 16 years.

Pertinently, the government should utilize the vibrant economic experts we have all over the country and adopt practicable economic policies towards moving the nation out of the mess it found itself today. The developments of having political appointees particularly on sensitive offices like the Ministry of Finance based on partisan politics, ethnic consideration or compensational ground is indeed repulsive and horrible. Succinctly, the error in the earlier budget presented to the National Assembly is a measure of inadequacy on the personnel of the ministry starting from the Minister. In the civilized world, such officials would have resigned honourably after the incident or have been shown the back door by the President. Hence, the explanations and Senate’s adoption are inadequate.  

It would be recalled that prior to the discovery of the errors, the former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Professor Charles Soludo vehemently criticized the budget stating unequivocally that it was deficient of economic blueprints, target and professionalism. Above all, it was a ‘copy-cat’ version the previous Jonathan’s administration. To call spade a spade, if the present administration opted to scrounge a well packaged layout put together by the former administration, it wasn’t a bad idea considering the fact that the former Minister of Finance who doubled as the Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iwealla is irrebuttably a global financial expert with worldbank blood. Besides, her services to the nation were never on pro bono; Iwealla even at a point earned remunerations in foreign currency.

Suffice to say that if the format was copied, with the concept of continuum of government, the present administration committed no offence. Nonetheless, if it was copied verbatim, it simply indicated that the President should reconsider the appointments in the Ministry of Finance.  The President after his formal presentation of the budget had written to the Senate requesting it to discard the earlier copy for a subsequent one following the inconsistencies. After intense squabbles, the upper legislative chamber on Tuesday adopted the presidential request to swap the budget.

In the detailed letter to the Senate, President Buhari enjoined the Chamber to judiciously consider his latter copy of the budget against the earlier one adding that the National Assembly would be given the both versions of the budgets.

“It will be recalled that on 22^nd December, 2015 (intended 2016), I presented my 2016 budget proposals to the joint sitting of the National Assembly. I submitted a draft bill accompanied by a schedule of details.

“As of the time of submission, we indicated that because the details had just been produced, we would have had to check to ensure that there were no errors in the detailed breakdown contained in the schedule.”

“That has since been completed and I understand that the corrections have been submitted. The National Assembly would, therefore have the details as submitted on the 22^nd and a copy containing the corrections submitted last week.”

“It appears that this has led to some confusion. In this regard, please find attached the corrected version. This is the version the National Assembly should work with as my 2016 budget estimates.”

The draft bill remains the same and there are no changes in any of the figures,” the President wrote.

It is therefore irrevocably incumbent on the President to do the needful by putting square pegs in the square holes as he works towards setting a solid foundation for the country. The excuses of the previous administration cannot repeat itself. No doubt, the choice of who handles the finance of the nation at the moment is at the discretion of the President.