National assembly can't re-write budget- Falana

Human rights activist, Mr Femi Falana, has advised President Goodluck Jonathan not to sign the 2011 Appropriation Bill into law until the alleged illegal addition of N500bn into the budget by the House of Representatives is expunged.


Falana said in a statement on Saturday that though the President had been signing such illegal appropriation bills into law in the past, now is the time to correct the wrongdoing, which he described as a ‘constitutional anomaly’, once and for all.

The signing of this year’s bill into law has been delayed due to the illegal addition which the president is said to be uncomfortable with.

Reports, however, indicate that the leadership of the National Assembly has been mounting pressure on the president to sign the budget before June 5 to enable the lawmakers, especially those of them not returning to the House, to collect all their outstanding salaries and allowances before the expiration of their tenure on May 29.

The new House resumes June 6.

Also, a meeting is scheduled to hold on Sunday (today) between the President and the leadership of the National Assembly to resolve the impasse.

But Falana on Saturday frowned on the move, saying the illegality of the action of the legislators cannot be treated as a family affair of the Peoples Democratic Party because of its constitutional implications.

He argued, “By virtue of Section 81(1) of the 1999 Constitution, the President is required to prepare and lay before the two Houses of the National Assembly the estimates of the revenues and expenditure of the federation for the next financial year.

“The proposed national budget submitted to the National Assembly in the form of an Appropriation Bill shall be debated with a view to passing the same into law.

“No doubt, while debating the budget the National Assembly may remove any item of expenditure which ought not to have been included by the President.

“However, the National Assembly lacks the power to add or introduce to the budget any item which has not been prepared or laid before it by the President. To that extent, President Jonathan should not sign the illegal Appropriation Bill 2011 into law.”

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