We have power to increase the budget, NASS tell Osinbajo

Posted by Factnews | 7 years ago | 2,198 times



The National Assembly, on Thursday, took up issue with Acting President Yemi Osinbajo on his remarks that the National Assembly has no power to tinker with the Budget, insisting that the legislature does not only have the power, it will indeed not cede its constitutional power to the executive.

Recall that Osinbajo had on Tuesday complained against fresh projects introduced into the 2017 Budget of N7.441 trillion which he signed into law, while stating that the lawmakers do not have any power to do so.

But the two chambers of the National Assembly on Thursday disagreed with Osinbajo, insisting that they have the powers to introduce new projects, add, remove or reduce items in the appropriation bill forwarded to it by President Muhammadu Buhari for consideration and passage.

On the part of the Senate, its position was sequel to the point of order raised by the Deputy Leader of the Senate, Senator Bala Ibn Na’Allah, who called the attention of his colleagues to the remarks by Osinbajo and the wider attention it commanded in the media, citing order 43 of the Senate Rules.

Na’Allah said he was of a firm conviction that the Acting President never made such statement, claiming that he was rather quoted out of context.

Na’Allah said he brought the remarks by Osinbajo to the attention of the Senate because many Senators trooped to his office on Wednesday to register their displeasure, contending that the remarks by the Acting President was not only provocative but unconstitutional going by provisions of section 80 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended).

He quoted relevant portion of section 80 of the constitution empowering the National Assembly to make inputs through appropriation into yearly budget of the country.

He said: “I want to make a personal explanation on the media reports credited to the Acting President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, to the effect that the National Assembly does not possess any power to alter the budget submitted to it by the Executive.

“I offer explanation that we have operated this Constitution from 1999 to date. I am sure that everybody who knows me knows that I have some limited understanding of the provisions of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

“I have also had the privilege to work with the Acting President while I was practicing in Lagos as a lawyer; we did a lot of things together. So, he is somebody that I know so much, that I will rather believe that what was alleged to have been said could not have been said by him and even if he spoke on the matter, he was misquoted.

“For the avoidance of doubt, this same Constitution we operated from 1999 to date has section 80, and the title of section 80 is “Power and Control over Public Funds”. With your permission Mr. President, I read: all revenues or other monies raised or received by the Federation not being revenues of other monies payable under this Constitution or any Act of the National Assembly into any other Public Fund of the Federation established for a specific purpose shall be payable to and for one consolidated fund of the Federation.

“Section 2 says: no monies shall be withdrawn from the consolidated revenue Fund of the Federation except to meet expenditure that is charged upon the Fund by the Constitution or where the issue of those monies has been authorised by an Appropriation Act, Supplementary Appropriation Act or Act passed in pursuance of Section 81 of the Constitution.

“Three, no money shall be withdrawn from any public funds of the Federation other than the Consolidated revenue fund of the Federation unless the issue of those monies has been authorised by an Act of the National Assembly.

“Four, no money shall be withdrawn from the Consolidated revenue Fund or any other public fund of the Federation except in the manner prescribed by the National Assembly. That is the provision”.

The Senate President, Bukola Saraki, in his response said since the provisions of the constitution on the subject matter is not ambiguous, the Senate and by extension, the National Assembly will not cede its constitutional power to the executive.

Saraki agreed with the Deputy Senate leader that the Acting President was probably misquoted more so being a seasoned lawyer.

He said: “Thank you very much Deputy leader on the point that you have raised because this is very important. I too have a lot of our colleagues coming up to us regarding the 2017 budget. And I cannot agree with you less.

“Am sure that the Acting President must have been misquoted because there is clearly no ambiguity in the Constitution of the responsibility of the National Assembly. This matter has been cleared and settled.

So, I don’t think there are any issues here that are vague. I will like to believe too that the Acting President must have been wrongly quoted.

 “But at the same time, I want to say that there are times we have a number of consultations and I want to make it clear that the consultations we do with the Executive will not at any time mean that we will give up the powers we have in line with the Constitution.

“I believe that as responsible statesmen, there are times we consult and do our best to work with the Executive and assist them. But as we bend backwards, I don’t think that should be misrepresented that powers given to us in the Constitution does not exist. That is not the case, and this Senate will continue to defend the Constitution and ensure that anything we do is in line with the laws of the land”.

On his part, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Yakubu Dogara, on Thursday, insisted that the National Assembly has the powers to introduce new projects, add, remove or reduce items in the appropriation bill forwarded to it by President Buhari. Dogara stated this while reacting to a motion of privilege moved by Hon. Lawal Abubakar (APC/Adamawa).

According to the Speaker, the framers of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) have vested the powers of law making in the legislature, execution or implementation on the executive while the judiciary interprets the law so as to ensure checks and balances.

Dogara said: “A declaration as to which of the arms has the power and rights, in as much as it is related to the interpretation of the law, is the function of the judiciary and not of the executive.”

Earlier, in his motion, Hon. Abubakar had disclosed that his privilege as a member had been breached based on statements credited to Acting President Yemi Osinbajo, who was quoted to have said on two occasions that the National Assembly lacks the powers to introduce new projects into the budget before passing same.

But Dogara has argued that the Appropriation Act is a law enacted by the National Assembly and that public officers from the president down to his ministers have sworn to uphold the constitution, adding that the refusal or failure to implement the budget is a violation of the constitution which has consequences.

The speaker stated that in the event of the executive refusing to assent to any bill passed by the National Assembly, the constitution empowers the National Assembly to override such a veto in the interest of the public. He said: “We are men of honour whether legislators or executive.

We are bound by the oath of office to faithfully execute that law and in the case of the executive, if it is not done, all of us know the very consequences. I don’t want to call it by its name, we know the consequences.”

Drawing a parallel from the United States where Nigeria copied its presidential system of government from, Dogara declared that “any budget proposal sent to Congress is presumed dead on arrival and it only comes alive when passed by both chambers of Congress because the legislature has the powers to tamper with the proposal.”

The speaker assured that the House under his leadership will not be a rubber stamp to the executive as the House will do everything to uphold and protect the independence of the legislature say they will not sign and after 30 days, if we can muster two-thirds, and it doesn’t have to be two-thirds of the entire membership, once the quorum is formed, two-thirds of the members sitting and voting, we can override the veto of the president and pass it into law.”


 

 


Source: Dailytimes

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