Femi Falana, human rights
lawyer, says the national assembly has
no constitutional right to rewrite and pass the budget.
On June 20, President Muhammadu
Buhari signed the 2018 appropriation bill into law.
Buhari had said the national
assembly increased its budget from N125 billion to N139.5 billion
He also said the lawmakers added
6,403 projects of their own to the 2018 budget proposal sent to them, while
they cut the appropriation for some key projects.
Speaking in an interview with
PUNCH, Falana said the Buhari
administration is to blame for alteration done to the budget.
According to him, it is the
“unprecedented official impunity permitted by the President that has encouraged
the national assembly to continue the illegality of rewriting and jerking up
the budget”.
The senior advocate of Nigeria
(SAN) also expressed concern over the delay in signing the budget into law.
He described the delay as “the
height of impunity on the part of both the executive and legislative” arms of
government.
“What we are witnessing is the
height of impunity on the part of both the executive and the legislative organs
of the government. The crisis has continued because the Fiscal Responsibility
Act is often ignored,” Falana said.
“No doubt, the national assembly
has become so bold in arrogance and impunity.
“Otherwise, how can they insert
6,403 projects while the President proposed 4,700 projects and increased
capital expenditure form N2.36bn to N2.87bn?
“With respect, the Buhari
administration has itself to blame for the mangling or padding of the budget by
the national assembly.
“I sued the national assembly
over the rewriting of the budget by the national assembly in 2014. The case was
decided in 2016. The Presidency was not
interested in the case.
“Even though the court struck out
the case for want of locus standi to file the suit, it proceeded to hold that
the national assembly lacks the constitutional power to abandon the budget
estimates and revenues of expenditure proposed by the President and substituted
them with their own.
“In 2016, the President promised
to sanction the public officers who were indicted for the criminal padding of
the budget. Did the President sanction any of the criminal suspects?
“It is such unprecedented
official impunity permitted by the President that has encouraged the national
assembly to continue the illegality of rewriting and jerking up the budget
without cash or revenue to back it up.
He said the excuse that the
budget alteration was done to address geopolitical imbalances holds no grounds.
“That is arrant nonsense. I
challenge the national assembly members to point to any law that empowers them
to rewrite the budget and pass it in order to correct geographical imbalance,”
he said.
“I want to assume that majority
of the legislators are wallowing in honest ignorance. Otherwise, they would not
argue that they are rewriting the budget in a bid to correct geographical
imbalance.
“The executive has allowed the
illegality to continue for too long. Sections 4, 5, 6 of the Constitution
stipulate that the legislature will make law; the executive will execute the
laws, including Appropriation laws, while the judiciary will interpret the
laws.
“To that extent, the national
assembly cannot combine legislative duties with executive functions by
introducing new projects into an appropriation law and turning round to execute
certain provisions of the same appropriation law.”
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