The Nigerian national assembly has often portrayed itself as an advocate of democracy, claiming that it is working for the benefit of the Nigerian citizens but new facts show otherwise.
These facts emerged after President Muhammadu Buhari signed the 2018 appropriation bill into law. The budget passed was one heavily padded by the national assembly for personal gains. The national assembly brazenly removed and in some cases reduced capital project to fund their pockets.
To achieve this scam, they delayed the 2018 budget presented to them by President Buhari last year and cunningly frustrated the executive by claiming it was carefully deliberately on the bill.
First, the national assembly passed the 2018 Appropriation Bill on 16 May 2018 – one hundred and ninety (190) days after it received it.
The delay dashed the hopes for Nigeria to commence a predictable January-December financial year starting in 2018.
Secondly, the budget returned fully loaded. The lawmakers passed N9.12 trillion an increase of N508 billion over and above the N8.612 trillion originally presented by President Buhari.
At the detriment of the country and even modern realities, they increased the oil benchmark price from the US$45 submitted to $51.
During the process of the passage of the bill, the national assembly altered it significantly, making cuts amounting to 347 billion naira in the allocations to 4,700 projects submitted to them for consideration, and introducing 6,403 projects of their own, amounting to 578 billion naira.
These cuts affected several critical projects, including but not limited to the following:
– Mambilla Power Plant
– Second Niger Bridge/ancillary roads
– The East-West Road
– Bonny-Bodo Road
– Lagos-Ibadan Expressway
– Itakpe-Ajaokuta Rail Project
– Abuja Mass Transit rail project
– Various strategic interventions in the health sector (upgrade of some tertiary health institutions, transport and storage of vaccines, provision of anti-retroviral drugs, establishment of chemotherapy centres, procurement of dialysis consumables)
– Provision of security infrastructure in the 104 Unity Schools nationwide
– The Federal Government’s National Housing Programme
– Pension Redemption Fund and Public Service Wage Adjustment.
– Export Expansion Grant (EEG)
– Special Economic Zones/Industrial Parks
– Construction of the Terminal Building at Enugu Airport
– Take-off Grant for the Maritime University in Delta State
In addition, about seventy (70) new road projects have been inserted into the budget of the Federal Ministry of Power, Works and Housing.
The national assembly increased provisions for Statutory Transfers by 73.96 billion naira — most of it recurrent expenditure — at a time the Buhari Administration is doing its best to keep recurrent expenditure down and prioritise capital spending.
The national assembly increased its own budget by 14.5 billion naira, from 125 billion naira to 139.5 billion naira, without any discussion or consultation with the Executive.
The budget signed into law today by President Buhari provides for aggregate expenditures of 9.12 trillion naira, which is 22.6% higher than the 2017 appropriation.
Further details of the Signed budget will be provided by the Minister of Budget and National Planning, at a Public Presentation event to be held at 10am on Thursday June 21, 2018, at the Rotunda Conference Hall of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Abuja.
The President remains determined to continue to work with the National Assembly towards improving the budgeting process and restoring Nigeria to the January-December fiscal cycle.
