2013 BUDGET: Senate, Presidency at war

By Henry Umoru, Abuja
What can be termed a testy relationship between President Goodluck
Jonathan and the Senate came to the open on Tuesday when senators
got provoked.
The problem had to do with the 2013 Budget implementation. The
lawmakers, while reacting to a statement credited to the
Coordinating Minister for the Economy and Minister of Finance, Dr.
Ngozi Okonjo- Iweala, warned her not to set them against the
President.
One would not really need the services of a soothsayer to tell that
therelationship between the Executive arm of government and the
National Assembly was frosty especially as the Minister related with
the lawmakers on the budget.
There appears to be cutting of corners and not recognizing the
positions and offices of some persons. The budget palaver would not
have got to this level if there was no mutual suspicion between
Okonjo-Iweala and the Office of the Special Adviser to the President
on National Assembly Matters.
The Special Adviser's Office, as the name implies, ought to play a
significant role in dousing the tension had it been carried along by
the Minister.
The attack on Okonjo-Iweala began onthe Senate floor after the
Chairman, Senate Committee on Information, Media and Information,
Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe, PDP, Abia South, chided her over her
statement that the Federal Government would not be able to pay
workers' salary by September, due to non-passage of the 2013 Budget
amendment bill into law.
Infact, what the Minister meant was that the lawmakers must rush and
passthe amendment bill or the country and Nigerians would hold them
responsible for any collapse of the nation's economy. The Executive
arm, through Okonjo-Iweala, seemed to be tactically pushing
everything to the doorsteps of the lawmakers.
Abaribe, noting that the Senate and the National Assembly in general,
was an arm of government the way the Executive arm is and could not be
a rubber stamp to a fellow arm, warned that the Minister must not
pitch the National Assembly against the President, adding that such
statement was capable of inciting workers against the lawmakers.
Okonjo-Iweala had, while speaking on a radio programme, on Monday,
been quoted as saying the national economy would collapse due to the
failure of the legislature to pass the new amendments to the 2013
Budget.
Jonathan had forwarded a bill amending the 2013 Budget of N4.987
trillion to the National Assembly in March, an action the lawmakers
have not been favourably disposed to.
Rather, the National Assembly asked the Executive to immediately
commence work on the 2014 Appropriation Bill. The delay over the
amendment prompted the Minister to warn, during the interview on Ray
Power FM, that if there was no resolution on the bill, the government
would not be able to pay public sector workers by September.
Explaining the delay and the reason the National Assembly could not
pass the budget, the Senate spokesperson, Abaribe, said, ''What we
got from the President, which is actually the third Amendment, is a
sort of document amending the budget. Now we found that these
documents are even larger than the budget itself and there is no way
the Senate and even the National Assembly can consider these
amendments until we come back from our vacation this year.
"There is absolutely no way amendments of these nature would
beconsidered for the short time that we have until we go on our
national vacation. And the point really is this, it not about the
report that there are differences; and this was discussed with the
presidency that we take care of the differences and deal with them.
Coming to now bring up a whole list of amendments that are even much
morethan the original that was sent, I do not expect the presidency
would say we shouldn't have enough time to go through it.
"In addition to that, we have other things we would want to deal with.
What we would want to appeal is that efforts should not be made to put
us on a collision course. We are not on a collision course.
"We are all interested in making sure that the budget as passed would
be implemented, and implemented in such a way that everybody within
this country will get the benefit of why the budget was passed in the
first place.
"We know that in September as the president has promised, there is
goingto be a new budget. So, when you bring a budget of this volume
and thenyou bring another budget in September, what do you expect us
to do?"
Reacting to Okonjo-Iweala's statement, Abaribe, who noted that the
Senate was perplexed and dismissed the insinuation that the economy
would collapse, said, ''The National Assembly was perplexed when we
heard today(Tuesday) the comments allegedly made by Minister of
Finance and the CoordinatingMinister of the Economy with respect to
the budget. First of all, the Senate does not view the comments made
lightly. The feeling of the Senate and of course the National Assembly
has always been that we do not expect Ministers of the Federal
Republic and appointees of the President to make comments that tend to
give the impression of a collision course between the Executive and
Legislature, because we are all working towards the same purpose; and
which is to make sure that we takecare of the welfare of Nigeria.
''Therefore, we find it not to our liking when a comment is made that
tends tosay that government will shut down if the National Assembly
doesn't do anything. We do not agree with that".
According to the lawmaker, the third budget amendment proposal sent
by Jonathan to the Senate was more voluminous than the original 2013
budget document. He added that as a result of the size of the new
proposal, the Senate could not deliberate on it until senators
returned from their annual vacation in September. The vacation begins
in August. "If there are differences, we shall discuss with the
president in order to trash them out. The president cannot expect us
to passthe proposal without looking into the voluminous document", the
Senate spokesman said.
"The Finance Minister should not put us on a collision course with the
president. The Senate will consider what was sent." Abaribe's reaction
came the same day Jonathan sent a third 2013 Budget amendment to the
Senate through a letter addressed to Senate President David Mark and
dated June 26, 2013, bringing some changes in some select expenditure
categories, even as he noted that some capital projects whose
allocations were reduced by the National Assembly be restored as that
would help promote national development.
The lawmakers could not discuss as plenary was suspended in honour of
the late Senator Pius Ewherido, DPP, Delta Central, who died June 30.
In the new proposal, the President accused the National Assembly of
removing some capital votes from the initial proposed amendments
thereby making execution of such projects impossible and these
amounted to N72.4 billion cut which the president wanted the senators
to restore. This is just as the lawmakers accused Jonathan of reneging
on an earlier agreement that should he sign the 2013 Budget, they
would approve an immediate follow-up amendment he would send.
The areas the President wants changesto are: Ministry of Works:
Abuja-Lokoja Road reduced by N4 billion; Kano-Maiduguri Road reduced
by N3.5 billion; Dualisation of Ibadan-Ilorin Section 2 reduced by
N5.5 billion; Rehabilitation of Jebba Bridge reducedby N1 billion;
Special Intervention Fund for Emergency Roads and Bridges washout
across the country reduced byN6.28 billion; Dualisation of Obajana
Junction to Benin reduced by N4 billion; Ministry of Health: MDG
HIV/AIDS ARV drugs allocation reduced by N1 billion; Routine
Immunisation Vaccines reduced by N1.75 billion; Malaria Programme
procurement and distribution of insecticides reduced by N0.8 billion;
payment of pledge for Onchocerciasis Recertification cut by N0.12
billion; National Trauma Centre, Abuja reduced by N0.1 billion;
Ministry of Power: A total of N16.3 billion was cut from power
projects including the 215MW Kaduna Dual Fired Power Plant,which was
reduced by N2.25 billion; 2nd Kaduna-Kano 33KV DC Lines reduced by
N1.5 billion; Gombe-Yola-Jalingo 330KV SC Line reduced by N0.6
billion; Maiduguri 330/132KV Sub-station reduced by N0.3B; Kaduna-Jos
330KV DC Line reduced by N0.5 Billion; Omotosho-Epe-Ajah 330KV DC line
reduced by N0.8Billion;
Ministry of Transport: Construction of Abuja-Kaduna Rail was reduced
by N1.4Billion; Jebba-Kano Rail line Rehabilitation reduced by N0.5
Billion; procurement and Rehabilitation of Wagons/locomotives reduced
by N1Billion;insurance of Locomotives reduced by N0.2 billion.
Ministry of Education: Allocations to various projects were reduced to
the tune of N5.64 billion including the National Library Project which
was cut by N2 billion.
The Senate is going on recess on July 25 and will not return until the
end of September while Jonathan is expected to send the 2014
Appropriation Bill to the National Assembly that some month.