…Power, Works & Housing to forfeit N25bn; Water – N12bn; Agric – N11bn; Education – N10bn; Science & Tech – N9bn
…Wants N121.2bn taken from Service Wide Vote to balance N242.2bn for general use
…Ignores President’s request to vire N242.2bn from Constituency Projects
The Senate on Wednesday disobeyed President Muhammadu Buhari’s directive on sourcing of fund for the 2019 General Elections.
Rather than taking to the President’s request that the parliament should vire the N242.4 billion election budget from money allocated by the lawmakers for the their constituency projects,
the Senate recommended a slash of N121.2 billion from the 2018 budgetary allocations of 30 Federal Government Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) and a cut of N121.2 billion from the N500 billion Service Wide Vote lodged in the Presidency.
This recommendation is in spite of complaints of inadequacy of budgetary allocations to government’s MDAs to fund capital projects.
Greatly affected by the Senate decision are Federal Ministry of Power Works and Housing which is to forfeit N25,527,821,945 of its N714,668,969,899 budget, leaving with it with just N689,141,147,954.
Other seriously affected Ministries are Federal Ministry of Water Resources which is to forfeit N12,954,799,500, Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development – N11,057,594,240, Federal Ministry of Education – N10,238,444,433 and Federal Ministry of Science and Technology – N7,466,143,244
The development was sequel to recomendation of the Senate Committee on Appropriation which during plenary on Wednesday presented to the whole house its recommendation that the other half of N121.2 billion be sourced from the Service Wide Votes in the 2018 Appropriation Bill.
This followed the request of the Joint Committees of both chambers of the National Assembly on INEC and Electoral Matters that a sum of N242.2 billion be vired for the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and other agencies for successful preparation and conduct of the 2019 polls.
The Joint Committe headed by Senator Suleiman Nazif (PDP, Bauchi) had recommended virement of N189,007,272,393 to INEC, N9,481,500,000 to the Office of the National Security Adviser, N10,213,284,455 to Department of State Security, N3,573,534,500 to Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, N27,341,317,433 to the Nigeria Police Force, and N2,628,143,320 to Nigeria Immigration Service, totalling N242,245,050,100.
Presenting its report, Chairman of Senate Committee on Appropriation, Senator Danjuma Goje (APC, Gombe Central), said: “Recall the approval of the Virement/Supplementary budget for INEC and Security Agencies for the conduct of the 2019 General election in the sum of N242, 245, 050,100 only, which is to be funded from the Service Wide Votes on the 16th October, 2018-Senate Resolution (S/RS/027/04/8);
“Aware that because of some obvious and imminent issues of national socio- economic importance, the virement/supplementary request cannot be implemented as earlier approved.
“Accordingly resolves to: Rescind and reconsider its approval of the request as contained in resolution (S/RS/027/04/8) in line with Order 53(6) of its Standing Order; and Approve the sum of N242,245,050,100 only”.
But this recommendation may likely spark off fresh face-off between the executive and the legislature. It was however believed that in view of the timeframe of the forthcoming general elections, the two arms of government will resolve the contentious issues and ensure hitch free elections in 2019.
But a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) told The Daily Times that if not carefully addressed, the National Assembly may implicate the Presidency with this resolution.
Speaking on confidence, the party chieftain said: “This is another blackmail attempt by the Senate. Should the Federal Government reject this recommendation now, they will go to the press and allege unpreparedness of the Presidency in conducting the election.
“Looking at the short time we have before the February election, it will be unwise for the government to start fighting the National Assembly over the funding. But I think this is a big deviation from the spirit of give and take in governance.
“Why are the lawmakers shielding their own constituency projects fund and find it convenient to recommend cut in budgets of Ministries. This is democratically insensitive”.
While the sole recommendation of the Goje-led Committee was unanimously carried, an additional prayer was adopted to allow Senate Committee on Police Affairs investigate how the Nigeria Police Force has utilised previous allocation for election purposes in the last two General Elections.
The second resolution was consequent upon Senator Dino Melaye’s query of allocation of N27, 341,317,433 to the Police for the purpose of the 2019 polls.
Melaye had argued that such collosal amount of money is not needed by the He Police that had 2018 budgetary allocation.
Chairman, Appropriation Committee, Senator Danjuma Goje, said Melaye’s complain was belated after both chambers of the National Assembly had passed the 2019 election budget.
Senate President, Bukola Saraki, reframed Melaye’s concern by suggesting that the committee be mandated to look into utilisation of previous allocation to the Police for election monitoring.
The committee is expected to submit its report in two weeks.
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