- What gives FG confidence that NASS will accept to forgo constituency projects?
Last week, President Muhammadu Buhari submitted a supplementary budget proposal of N228,854,008,215, to the National Assembly. The proposal came a few weeks after the rancour-infested 2018 budget was signed into law by the President. The sum of N164,104,792,065 in the proposal is for the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and security agencies for the conduct of the 2019 general election while the balance (N64, 749, 216, 150) is to reinstate the controversial cuts made by the National Assembly in the 2018 budget, for projects which the president termed critical.
A breakdown of the supplementary budget shows that while INEC would get N143.512bn, the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) would get N11.457bn, and the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA) N3.8bn. On its part, the Department of State Services (DSS) will receive N2.9bn, while the National Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) will get N1.8bn, and the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) N530.1m. Notably, the president requested the National Assembly to source the N228,854,008,215 from the insertions it made into the 2018 budget, which totaled N578,319,951,904.
The president lamented that because of the paucity of funds: “implementing a budget of N9.12 trillion for 2018 will be extremely challenging and therefore, I do not consider it expedient to propose a further increase to the size of the 2018 expenditure framework to fund these very important and critical expenditure items.” In his letter to the Senate, he wrote: “accordingly, I invite the distinguished Senate to consider, in the national interest, reallocating some of the funds appropriated for the new projects, which were inserted into the 2018 budget proposal totalling N578,319,951,904 to cover the sum of N228,854,008,215 required as noted above.”
We wonder why the president did not include this important budget proposal for INEC in the 2018 proposals. Was it an oversight or a further reflection of the government’s tardiness in budgeting, which has become like a malignant tumour since it came into power? To the chagrin of Nigerians, the government which came into power with a change agenda has not brought any innovations in budgeting since coming into office. Nigerians will therefore wait to see how the president’s recourse to patriotic instincts of the legislators will make a difference this time around.
But even more worrisome, is the request that the budget be sourced from the insertions made by the National Assembly in the 2018 budget. Considering the determination of the National Assembly members to determine what is finally put into the national budget; what gives the government the confidence that the National Assembly has become born-again, such that it will accept to forgo projects that it considers as critical to their members’ constituencies? Of course, we are not siding with the National Assembly in the disagreement with the executive, but we are concerned that an important budget proposal for the 2019 general election will be predicated on such a tenuous plea for understanding?
We agree with the president on the need for an early preparation for the 2019 elections, but we are worried that he is not matching his words with action. Considering the bickering over budget, it is strange that part of the INEC budget is further moved into next year’s budget cycle. With yearly budgets gaining approval in the middle of the year in the last few years, how would the balance of INEC’s budget, which will be included in the 2019 budget proposal, be ready in time, to avoid excuses towards the conduct of free and fair elections? While the legislature is no better, we earnestly urge the executive not to extend its deficiencies in budgeting to the preparation of the 2019 general elections.
